 Brett Weitzel, 30, of Albuquerque, NM, will launch Monopod Mountain Bike Madness, a week-long, 215 mile ride from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT. On June 7, 2008 he will face this challenge just eight months after having his right leg amputated, following a 13-year battle with cancer. Along with long time girlfriend, close friends, and family he is taking on this feat as a way to emerge from cancer as his athletic self and to start helping others believe that anything is possible.
At the age of 17, a high school senior with top grades, captain of his basketball team and an all-district baseball player, this all-American boy seemed invincible and his future boundless. In October 1995, Brett was diagnosed with lymphoma of his right thigh. With a cure rate of 50% when found early, Brett underwent surgery, six rounds of chemotherapy, and 25 radiation treatments. Within three months, Brett was playing sports again. In 1996 he headed to the University of Colorado to pursue degrees in mechanical engineering and biochemistry, while he continued to push his limits by playing collegiate rugby in Australia, mountain biking, skiing as well as climbing over 30 of Colorado’s fourteen thousand foot peaks.
Brett began medical school at the University of New Mexico in 2002 and in his third year of school he was diagnosed for a second time with cancer. This time, his cancer was an aggressive form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma. The prognosis was poor, and his doctors gave him a 20% chance of living five years. He underwent five surgeries and 18 rounds of chemotherapy over the next year. He lost over sixty pounds of his athletic frame, spent months in the hospital, suffered nerve and kidney damage and became so severely ill, many thought he would never make it through the treatment. Though his leg never made full recovery, he returned to sports and decided to finish medical school. In July 2007, six months after returning to school, he was hit with his third diagnosis of cancer and the reality of limited treatment plans. By now he had received his lifetime dosage of radiation and had exhausted his chemotherapy options. After 13 years of battling cancer, Brett’s only option was an amputation of his right leg at the hip. On October 3, 2007, doctors performed the ten-hour surgery during which Brett lost more than half of his body’s blood volume. Doctors were confident they had removed the entire tumor though were doubtful in his ability to participate in sports again.
Three months after his surgery Brett was skiing again and was asked to join the National Sports Center for the Disabled Ski Team in Winter Park, Colorado. Six months after losing his leg, he received a grant from the Challenged Athlete Foundation for a mountain bike and, although it seemed impossible, is riding it without any adaptive equipment.
He returned to medical school in March 2008, at the age of 30 and is planning to graduate later this year.
Brett is motivated to lead by example and to help patients and their families afflicted with cancer, especially those who have lost a limb to it. He is riding to show that there are no limits except one’s own. Brett learned at a young age that to succeed one must persevere in constantly pushing limits and he is discovering that his future is still boundless.
He is currently fundraising for the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico, an organization that helped him through school while he fought cancer. You can donate directly to the Children's Cancer Fund of New Mexico by using our secure online PayPal account on the Donate page, or you can send checks to the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico. Please make the checks out to the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico and mail to: 112 14th Street SW Albuquerque, NM 87102. For more information contact Brett Weitzel at
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or call the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico at 505.243.3618.
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