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July 21, 2005
Au Sable helps heal with reelsMen living with cancer fish, talk about diseaseByRecord-Eagle staff writer GRAYLING - The cool water of the Au Sable River rinses away the worries of 12 Michigan men, each a cancer survivor, said organizers of a fishing retreat for cancer survivors. The Reel Recovery organization this week hosted it first fly-fishing retreat for men with cancer in the Midwest. Most of the men have no prior experience with fly-fishing and took lessons at Gates Au Sable Lodge near Grayling. "When they're doing this, they are not thinking about cancer," said Tim O'Connor, one of the retreat organizers. He said he was hooked on the program first as a participant and now helps run retreats, most held in Colorado, Utah and California. The three-day event includes group discussions about cancer, lessons in fly-fishing and time spent in the river, learning to catch trout with "fishing buddies" from all over Michigan. "A lot of men who get cancer just go home to die. They don't realize their life is not over, just because they've got cancer," said program director Coy Theobalt of Denver. "We don't have a lot of control over the quantity of our lives, but we sure do for the quality of it." The program - free for the participants - is funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and is a partnership with Munson Healthcare, Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey and Seton Cancer Institute in Saginaw. Bob Cross, of Interlochen, 66, said the retreat is a great experience, particularly the balance of learning to fly-fish and talking with other cancer survivors. He said it can be difficult for many men to talk about their emotions at regular cancer support groups, which often include family members, such as spouses and children.
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Record-Eagle/Sheri McWhirter
