Share Your Story: Dean Hall

<p>In 2014, while still an active cancer patient, Dean Hall decided to inspire other cancer patients by chasing his dream of becoming the first person to swim the entire 187-mile length of the Willamette River, never guessing it would heal his leukemia.</p> <ul><li>03:35: Well, I fell in love with soccer and so I played it constantly. </li><li>05:52: I became a therapist and started my private practice in this tiny little town,</li><li>08:11: It never occurred to me that it came back bad because something was wrong with me. </li><li>10:06: Dean, you've got leukemia. </li><li>12:14: I was just in shock for about two weeks and devastated.  </li><li>14:28: You've got to be the boss of your journey and your body and your future. </li><li>16:51: Did you ever do what would be considered traditional treatment? </li><li>19:17: I would sleep 20 hours a day. </li><li>21:20: Tell us about your first wife.  </li><li>22:56: Then August of 2010, she started acting kind of funny. </li><li>25:52: I was astonished, and it is a real testament to her strength and her discipline. </li><li>29:44: All the rest of the time I'm just by myself feeling miserable both inside and out. </li><li>32:15: I started praying and meditating, asking every day for a purpose to just come forward. </li><li>34:08: If I'm dying, I want to die swinging for the fence. </li><li>35:30: The lymph system had pushed out all this poison that it had been holding and so I'd feel flu-like symptoms for about five hours after.  </li><li>37:59: I was born only four blocks from the Willamette, so I've always loved this river. </li><li>40:17: After you did [do] this swim over three weeks, what happened? </li><li>42:49: Being in that cold water threw me into something called Radical Remission.  </li><li>44:09: What is one thing you wish you had known at the very beginning of your cancer journey?  </li><li>44:50: If you could only do one thing to improve health care in the U.S., what would it be and why?  </li><li>45:49: Thriver Rapid Fire Questions.  </li><li>48:23