Emily Daniels

Emily Daniels arrived at the E.R. short of breath while pregnant with her second child to discover she had Stage IV lung cancer. She had never smoked a day in her life. 

Emily’s diagnosis belongs to more than 50% of lung cancer cases without a definitive explainable cause. Did you know that lung cancer in non-smokers might be caused by exposure to radon, secondhand smoke, air pollution, and even wok smoke? 

Had Emily been diagnosed 10 years ago, she would not be alive to tell us this story. In this episode, she is joined by her husband, Brian Daniels – former CU Buffs star — and her oncologist, Dr. Ross Camidge, a University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus trailblazing oncologist who pioneered a breakthrough treatment aimed at some rare types of lung cancer. The treatment consists of two targeted therapies that have kept Emily alive for the past three years. 

Now a mother of two, Emily talks about what inspires her fight against her diagnosis and the risks she took while pregnant in order to keep her baby. Choosing not to be treated with chemotherapy at the time was “a major life choice.” Her tough choices beg the questions: What to make of your life when you are forced to live it in three-month chunks? What if Emily has years, or maybe decades, left to live? It is because of her children and because of the unanswered questions, that she has chosen to fight. 

She organizes a golf tournament to fund lung cancer research and has raised $100k in the past three years. She also works with LUNGEvity, a non-profit organization focused solely on lung cancer awareness and research. For his part, Doctor Camidge remains hopeful. While he agrees that lung cancer is grossly under-funded  — it receives 1/10 of the funding received by breast cancer — he has trained his oncologist’s sights onto a smarter vision that includes personalized medication and the meticulous study of “molecular persistence,” or what makes cancer cells persist, so he can stop them from getting wise. 

Emily still has a Stage IV diagnosis. But thanks to her and to Doctor Camidge’s persistence, she’s living a mostly normal life. She remains active in yoga, she is a mother to two healthy children, and in her free time, she has become a patient-advocate for lung cancer.

Now that’s unstoppable!

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