Every Step Matters: The Story Behind Cancer Champions

With Guest Blogger Jen Miramontes, Founder of Cancer Champions

“I would like to climb in and out of the Grand Canyon.”

Those were the words that launched Cancer Champions.

I lost my father to lung cancer when I was 15. That loss never fully leaves you; it settles somewhere deep and shapes the way you move through the world. So, when my mother was diagnosed with cancer in my 30s, I made a commitment: I would be there for her every step of the way. Whatever it took.

We fought hard together. But there came a point in her journey when her medical team sat us down and told us they had done everything they could. They were estimating she had a few months left to live.

I asked my mom if there was anything on her bucket list, anything at all she still wanted to do. She didn’t hesitate.

She wanted to hike in and out of the Grand Canyon.

I want you to sit with that for a moment. My mother had esophageal cancer, which meant eating and getting adequate nutrition had been a constant struggle. She had been through extensive treatment. She was profoundly deconditioned, her body worn down by months of chemotherapy. And she wanted to hike one of the most demanding trails in North America.

I said yes.

I worked in fitness and nutrition, so I figured I could do my best. We got to work. I started blending down nutritious whole foods, this was well before the smoothie craze, before every corner had a juice bar, just real food, made easier for her body to handle. For movement, we started with what we had: a short walk to the end of the street and back. That’s it. One block.

Then the block got easier, and we went a little farther. A short walk became a longer walk. A longer walk became a short hike. A short hike became a longer one.

Something unexpected started happening. My mother had more energy than she’d had in months. She was sleeping better. She had an appetite. The color came back into her face. Her quality of life was genuinely, measurably improving, even as she was terminal.

And then she did it.

She stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon, looked out over one of the most breathtaking places on earth, and we hiked into the canyon and back out.

The Realization That Changed Everything

That experience changed me. I knew I was onto something, something real and important that the medical world wasn’t fully talking about yet.

This was more than 20 years ago. The research on exercise and nutrition during cancer treatment that we have today simply did not exist in the same way. The prevailing wisdom at the time was the opposite of what we now know: rest. Save your energy. Don’t push your body while it’s fighting cancer.

What I had witnessed with my mother told a different story. And I knew I couldn’t keep it to myself.

I had to do something with this. I had to find a way to reach anyone who had received this diagnosis and help them understand that there was more available to them, that their body was not just a passive vessel for treatment, but an active participant in their own healing.

The seed for Cancer Champions had been planted.

A Chance Meeting That Changed Everything

Years later, at a backyard barbecue hosted by a mutual friend, I met Ann Murray Paige.

We bonded immediately over our shared New England roots, swapping stories with the easy warmth of people who recognize home in each other. But beneath the laughter, Ann was in the middle of her own battle, metastatic breast cancer , and she was navigating it with the same kind of determination I had watched my mother muster years before.

As we got to know each other, Ann turned to my expertise. By this point, I had become a Certified Cancer Exercise Specialist, my experience with my mother had deepened into a professional calling. I began working with Ann directly, helping her stay strong, stay active, and stay connected to her body throughout treatment.

The difference it made was not subtle. Ann felt it, the increase in energy, the reduction in some side effects, the profound sense of agency that comes from doing something active in your own care rather than just enduring what’s being done to you.

Before Ann passed away, she gave me a charge. She had experienced firsthand what expert, compassionate, whole-person support could do for someone facing cancer. And she couldn’t accept that it remained out of reach for most people. She tasked me with finding a way, a real, scalable, accessible way, to bring this kind of support to the broader cancer community.

I took that charge seriously. Cancer Champions was born.

Building Something the Community Needed

From the beginning, I wanted Cancer Champions to be different from the resources I had struggled to find for my mother. Not a general wellness program with a cancer-friendly veneer. Not a one-size-fits-all approach that ignored the realities of what patients and survivors experience. Not advice from people who hadn’t spent time in the oncology world.

We built the program around four pillars, fitness, nutrition, mindset, and community because healing doesn’t happen in silos. The body, the mind, and the spirit are all implicated in a cancer journey. Addressing one without the others leaves too much on the table.

Our fitness programming is designed by certified Cancer Exercise Specialists who understand the specific demands treatment places on the body, the fatigue, the neuropathy, the loss of muscle and bone density, the need to move without overwhelming a system already under siege. Exercise during and after cancer treatment is not a luxury. It is, increasingly, understood by researchers to be one of the most powerful tools available for improving outcomes, managing side effects, and reducing recurrence risk. We help people access that tool safely and effectively.

Our nutrition support is grounded in evidence, not trends. We work with patients to understand what their bodies need during different phases of treatment and recovery, because what supports someone through chemotherapy is different from what serves them in remission, which is different again from what helps a survivor thrive long-term. And yes, we help people find real food that genuinely nourishes, because no one should have to choose between a chemical shake and nothing.

Our mindset work acknowledges what the medical system often doesn’t have time to address: the psychological weight of a cancer diagnosis. The fear. The grief. The loss of identity that can come when a body you trusted suddenly feels like unfamiliar territory. The anxiety of waiting for scan results. The strange liminal space of survivorship, where the danger has passed but the trauma hasn’t. We offer tools, mindfulness, meditation, community connection , that help people find solid ground.

And community, that fourth pillar, may be the most powerful of all. There is something irreplaceable about being in a room (or a virtual space) with people who genuinely understand your experience. Who don’t need you to explain what a “bad chemo day” feels like. Who celebrate your small victories with the full knowledge of what they cost. Cancer Champions creates that space intentionally, because isolation is one of the quietest and most damaging side effects of a cancer journey, and connection is one of the most reliable antidotes.

What Families Are Really Facing

I want to be honest about something: a cancer diagnosis does not arrive alone. It brings with it a cascade of challenges that extend far beyond the physical, and far beyond the patient.

Spouses and partners rearrange their lives. Children try to understand what’s happening to a parent and why everything feels different. Siblings and friends show up, desperate to help, unsure how. Employers must be navigated. Insurance must be dealt with. The financial toll of treatment, even for families with good coverage , can be devastating.

And through all of it, daily life continues. Bills come due. Kids need to get to school. Dinner needs to be made. The world does not pause for cancer, even when it feels like it should.

The families we serve at Cancer Champions are not statistics. They are parents and grandparents. They are coaches and teachers and business owners and caregivers. They are people in our neighborhoods and our faith communities and our schools. They are facing something enormous, often with less support than they need.

What donors, volunteers, sponsors, and community partners make possible, through their generosity, is the ability to reach those families. To say: you don’t have to figure this out alone. We have people who know how to help. And we’re here.

That is not a small thing. In my experience, it can change everything.

An Invitation to Walk-Run-Roll with Us

Photo Courtesy of Cancer Champions

This summer, Cancer Champions is hitting the pavement, and we’d love for you to join us.

Our Cancer Champions Walk-Run -Roll event is more than a fundraiser. It is a celebration of everyone who has faced cancer with courage. A tribute to those we’ve lost. A community gathering that reminds us, physically and visibly, that no one must walk this road alone.

Whether you lace up your shoes and join us on the course, volunteer your time to help make the day happen, donate to support programs that reach families in need, or simply show up to cheer, your presence matters. Every step, every dollar, every act of generosity is a statement that this community cares about its most vulnerable members.

If my mother’s diagnosis planted the seed for Cancer Champions, it is the generosity and engagement of communities like this one that have allowed it to grow. Programs that once served a handful of local families now reach people around the world. Certified experts in fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness work alongside patients and survivors at every point in their journey, from newly diagnosed to long-term survivor.

None of that happens without the people who show up.

Photo Courtesy of Cancer Champions

Ann Murray Paige believed that every person facing cancer deserves compassionate, comprehensive support—not just the fortunate few. That belief continues to inspire the mission of Cancer Champions, and events like the Walk-Run-Roll help make that mission possible.

Photo Courtesy of Cancer Champions

About the Author:

Jen Miramontes is the founder of Cancer Champions, a nonprofit organization supporting people facing cancer through evidence-based fitness, nutrition, mindset, and community programs.