Cancer Climber Leaves for Antarctica

Sean Swarner, two-time cancer survivor and keynote speaker at the SROA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, left Jan. 9, 2007, for Mt. Vinson in Antarctica in his quest to summit the highest peak on every continent. At more than 16,000 feet, Mt. Vinson is the highest mountain on Antarctica - and it's only 745 miles from the South Pole.

Swarner's last planned climb to Denali, aka. Mt. McKinley, is scheduled for May 16, 2007, exactly five years from his Everest ascent. Swarner is gathering names to carry on a special flag for his seventh summit as a fundraiser for the climb and for Cancer Climber's related programs. The organization has awarded its first Adventure Support Grant to a 19-year-old cancer survivor from Arizona.

The cost of adding the name of someone touched by cancer to the flag is $35. Swarner plans to follow up after the climb by sending a photo of the flag on the summit to contributors if he's among the 50 percent of successful climbers.

Learn more and add a name to the flag at http://www.cancerclimber.org/.