Despite being a healthy, athletic 45-year-old and never having smoked, Utah father-of-two Chad Dunbar was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 lung cancer, with just a 5% chance of surviving beyond five years.
In 2023, after biking over 3,000 miles in the mountains, Dunbar began experiencing calf pain. Assuming it was from overexertion, he got it checked—only to hear the shocking diagnosis.
“I was doing 3,000 miles on my mountain bike. My lungs were probably the healthiest piece of me,” Dunbar recalled. “It was surreal… denial… anger.”
His family was equally stunned. “He’s never smoked, never worked in a mine—just lived in clean-air Utah and Colorado,” said his brother-in-law.
Doctors later identified a rare RET gene mutation as the cause—an aggressive cancer seen in non-smokers, often detected late. By the time it was caught, it had already spread to his brain, liver, bones, and lymph nodes.
Initially, treatment brought hope—shrinking tumors and improving scans. “I’m thinking, man, I’m feeling good,” Dunbar said in mid-2023.
But by March 2024, the cancer had adapted, and new mutations appeared. “My doctors gave me a 5% chance of living over five years,” he shared.
Still, he remains determined: “Freaking 5%, I’ll take those odds. Every day is a battle. Hang on for one more day.”