Charley Maynard

Like many people with pancreatic cancer, Charley’s initial symptoms were relatively mild. He’d had dull pain in his stomach for some time, but he didn’t think too much of it until, one day, he started getting violently ill after spending his lunch break with a friend at a pizza buffet. He thought he might have food or salmonella poisoning. When he still felt terrible the following day, though, he went to see his doctor.

There, Charley had a CT scan, which quickly revealed the root of the problem. Charley had a large tumor on his pancreas with metastasis to his liver. Because of the metastasis, he received a Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, with doctors suspecting he had several months left to live.

Charley’s care team inserted a port so he could start chemotherapy. Before long, though, he developed a blood clot on that arm, prompting doctors to move the port to the other side of his body.

While receiving treatment at INTEGRIS Health, his local Oklahoma hospital, Charley considered traveling to MD Anderson for a second opinion. After reviewing his case, though, the doctors there said they’d follow the same approach his current team was already using, so he decided to stay put and continue treatment closer to home.

Charley started chemo using several chemotherapy drugs, including Gemzar and oxaliplatin. The oxaliplatin, in particular, led to some unpleasant side effects.

“With the oxaliplatin, I couldn’t eat or drink anything hot or cold,” Charley said. “It felt rough – it knocked my head off. But it wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it was going to be.”

As treatment progressed and Charley’s condition improved, doctors also discussed surgery and the possibility of having a Whipple procedure with him. He listened as they outlined the possibilities, but never gave much thought to pursuing it.

“If they couldn’t guarantee me at least five more years of life, I wasn’t going to bother,” he said.

Ultimately, Charley’s medications did their job and pushed his cancer into remission.

Then came another round of complications, with Charley developing additional blood clots in his neck, arms and heart.

“I couldn’t win for losing,” he said.

While Charley’s physical complications mounted, he also dealt with the emotional toll of a late-stage cancer diagnosis and the uncertainty that came with treatment.

“I laid around and had a two or three-week pity party,” Charley said. “People came to see me like I already had one foot in the grave.”

Still, Charley wasn’t the type to stay down long. He still had to pay rent, so before long, he returned to full-time work despite feeling physically drained from treatment.

“I didn’t care how bad I felt – I wasn’t going to lay down for it,” Charley said. “It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life, but I did it.”

Charley credits much of that determination to his father, whom he describes as the toughest, hardest-fighting man he ever met. Growing up around that kind of strength and grit left a lasting impression on him, and one that wound up influencing Charley’s own approach to facing cancer years later.

“In my younger days, I used to fight a lot,” he said. “I never got whooped then, and I wasn’t going to start now.”

After chemo, Charley’s condition remained stabilized until 2020, when he had a cancer recurrence. The diagnosis tied to the recurrence involved pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, or PNETS, which are less common than adenocarcinoma.

He started chemotherapy again, but this time, the side effects hit him even harder.

“It made me sicker than a dog,” Charley said.

He powered through the treatment, though, and his health had held pretty steady since. These days, Charley takes Ocreotide, a medication that helps manage abdominal distress. He also has monthly checkups and bloodwork, with everything looking clear on his most recent scans, which he had last month.