COURTESY SCOTT AICHNER
Jason Bogle’s surfing career has been sidetracked as he undergoes chemotherapy for Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone cancer. He initially blamed the pain in his back on a surfing injury.
Pro surfer battles
rare form of cancerDoctors are 'amazed' at how
well he has battled the disease
Six months after his diagnosis with a rare bone cancer, Hawaii pro surfer Jason Bogle is improving and able to get out for walks.
"Now we're smiling," his mother, Joana Guard, said in a telephone interview from her home in Auburn, Calif. "Literally, he almost died once. We really thought we were going to lose him."
She said he has "completely amazed the doctors" at Stanford Hospital, where he has been going for chemotherapy.
Bogle, 25, has Ewing's sarcoma, a cancer that most commonly starts in one of the hip bones, upper arm or thigh.
Friends have established a Jason Bogle Cancer Foundation to accept donations to help with his medical bills because he has no insurance.
Owners of the In4mation store at Ward Warehouse will hold a benefit art exhibit from 6 to 10 p.m. tomorrow to raise funds for Bogle. Twelve surfboards with art applied by 12 noted artists will be displayed and auctioned for a week via e-Bay, with bids starting at $500.
Bogle had suffered back pain for about a year, believing it related to a surfing injury, before he was diagnosed with cancer, his mother said.
"All this time the thing was growing. The tumor was pressing against his sciatic nerve on the bone and moved from his neck to the side of his brain."
He started going downhill at the time of a surfing contest in which he was advancing, but he was determined to keep going despite intense pain, Guard said. "Finally, he couldn't."
He left Hawaii May 1 to stay with his mother in California, and his cancer was detected there.
"We thought the whole time he would need back surgery, and the whole time it was a tumor," she said.
A doctor sent him to the emergency room May 19 after a blood test showed his "whole metabolic system was off the chart," she said. "It took over a week to figure out what kind of cancer it is. It's every mother's nightmare."
Once Stanford took him as a patient and started chemotherapy, "he improved little by little," she said.
"The good news is, he has chemotherapy every three weeks for a whole year, and he's going through tests. Every time they do a test, it's better."
After his last magnetic resonance imaging, a specialist said he would not need radiation, she said.
"He was absolutely elated."
The family is awaiting results of tests to confirm that the tumors are not active, she said.
She said Bogle "is finally able to get up and get out. He's just walking around, bringing his leg muscles back. Doctors can't believe all his muscles are back."
With prayers and support from family and friends, she said, "We're awfully fortunate to get through this. He forced himself to eat through chemotherapy (increasing his weight to 150 pounds after it fell to 105).
"He's so courageous. He's done everything he could to get through it," Guard said. "It's a humbling experience for him to go through, a major change of life."
It is uncertain if he will be able to return to surfing, she said.
"That's what he's hoping for. That's his life. I can't imagine him not being able to; he has progressed so well."
Donations can be sent to the Friends of Jason Bogle Cancer Fund, 919 Sunset Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92627.
