our story
Our story began in January 2017 as a way to raise awareness for Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer, currently without a cure.
Founder and executive director, Kenny Capps, was diagnosed with stage two Multiple Myeloma on January 15, 2015 and was forced to stop running that year due to a large bone lesion in his left hip. Prior to being diagnosed, Kenny was an ultramarathon runner (anything longer than 26.2 miles) and avid, if not extremely ordinary athlete. Kenny relied heavily on the generosity and kindness of friends and family to overcome the physical, medical, logistical and financial challenges of living with cancer.
In August 2015, after multiple rounds of chemotherapy and infusions, Kenny underwent a mostly successful bone marrow transplant. He did not achieve remission.
In 2016, Kenny participated in 16 running events, including 3 half-marathons and a tough 18 mile trail run with 5,000 feet of elevation gain. After reviewing the year, Kenny went to his wife, Murphy, and proposed running 1,175 miles across the state of North Carolina on the Mountains to Sea Trail in 2018 to raise awareness and funds for Myeloma. His wife is apparently as crazy as he is. She told him to go for it.
During 2017, Kenny trained and prepared for the long run and pulled other crazy people into this amazing and wonderful odyssey.
Today Cancer Active, which used to be Throwing Bones, consists of a board of wonderful people and a group of followers that grows bigger by the day. Below, you can get to know the wonderful people involved with us.
Cancer Active Team
Our mission is to educate and advocate for individuals living with cancer to help them be cancer active and improve their quality of life through healthy and active lifestyles. These are the individuals making that happen:
Kenny Capps, JD, MPH
Founder, Executive Director
Cindy Capps, M.Ed.
Assistant Director
Evelyn Gallagher
Communications Director
Kelsey Miller
Education Director
Board of Directors:
Dawn Chitwood
Board Chair
Shawn Lynch
Treasurer
Eric Moore
Board Member
Saad Usmani, MD, MBA, FACP
Board Member
Bruce Brolsma, MA, Ph.D
Board Member
Renee Jolly, BFA & MFA
Board Member
Michael Riotto
Board Member
Tony Newberne
Board Member
Daniel Garza
Board Member
Advisory Board:
Kylee Van Horn, RDN
Meidad Goldman, MD
Nina Shah, MD
Paul Brown, BSW, MSW
Robbie Capps, PhD
Surbhi Sidana, MD
There is Hope.
a message from Kenny Capps
I am a father, entrepreneur and average runner. Since 2015, I have also been battling Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer that currently has no cure. In April of 2018, I ran 1,175 miles in 54 days across the length of the Mountain to Sea Trail to raise money and awareness not only for cancer research and survivors but for living life to the fullest, even with an incurable disease.
After finding out, I was afraid that I might die early. I have had a grand adventure and I don’t want it to stop. That’s not why I was afraid of my cancer diagnosis, however. I didn’t want to leave a mess for my wife, children, my parents, and the rest of my family and friends. I was going to let them down. I was angry that there wasn’t a damn thing that I could do about it.
At a point, I had to stop running, my way of coping with any of life’s difficulties. I lost a little control of my body. I struggled with sleeping well. I couldn’t help our family income and I couldn’t be the kind of dad that I wanted to be. Life changed.
But life also went on.
Doctors in Asheville and at Emory University Hospital gave me options. They pushed me around, beat me up and made me stronger. After a bone marrow transplant and a lot of tough times, I’m still here, I’m back to running, and I feel strong. So strong, in fact, that I want to pay all the love that I and my family has felt over the past 2 years forward.
I want to show others struggling with this, or any, disease that you can’t fold up and go home. Don’t wait to die. Now is the time to bet it all. Throw those bones and let em ride. Don’t be afraid! You’re braver than you think, and your courage is going to generate more courage… and hope.. and a cure.
I’m going to do my part.
There is hope.
There will be a cure.
Until there is a cure, there is life.