George Karl

What can you control in the battle against cancer and who are the cancer angels? Controversial former NBA coach, George Karl, joins our UNSTOPPABLE cast to talk about what it means to live on the edge of COVID-19 when you are a three-time cancer survivor.

He is joined by Doctor Antonio Jimeno, Professor of Medicine/Oncology and Otolaryngology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Jimeno talks about the disturbing rise of head and neck cancers in the US, why these cancers are so unique and important, new treatments and the journey cancer patients take in becoming unstoppable survivors.

As for Karl, getting over a torn knee was child’s play compared to what was to come later in life. The first cancer diagnosis, prostate, was a blow. When he thought he’d beat it, he was diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Those two battles left Karl so weak that afterwards, he had to learn to eat again. With the help of people he calls his “cancer angels,” Karl pushed through, only to discover that he had ocular melanoma. “This is the one that will kill you,” he says. But nothing lit the fire against fighting cancer than getting the news that his son was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the prime of his life!

“Cancer can make you smarter and tougher,” he says. “But you have to get through it first.”

#UnstoppablePodcasts