Chuck Stahl
Cancer Survivor
Milton, PA
Biography
Chuck Stahl spoke with the 2025 Bike America Team in the first week of their ride about his experience as a colon cancer survivor. A custodian at his church for over 50 years, Chuck has lived a cancer free life since his diagnosis and treatment in 1993. In 2009, Chuck lost his wife to breast cancer. She was a carrier of the BRCA gene, which was passed to their daughter. Chuck’s daughter took steps to receive preventative care and has lived a cancer free life. Chuck has done work for cancer organizations and kept a strong relationship with his church in recent years.
CHUCK’S CANCER STORY
I had cancer in 1993 and had it repaired, and I've been good ever since. I worked a lot with the Cancer Society after I had cancer; I worked, actually went to the office and did some things for them. I got to know all the girls real good that I worked for, the cancer girls. They're all very good. I like to help as much as I can. I wish I could do more now, but we don't have much going on around here now. I do send them money once in a while, because we get mailings all the time. But in ‘09, my wife died from breast cancer, and that was a big blow for me. And after she died, here at the church, I met Helen and we've been together ever since.
SUPPORTING OTHERS
I learned a lot of things after (my wife) had (cancer). And I don't really understand medicine a lot. She had her breasts removed, and then they took a test, and it was called the BRCA test, and she had the BRCA gene, so now she has to tell all her siblings that they should get tested. Her oldest son was married, but they will never have any kids. So it didn't matter there. It stopped there. My second son didn't have it, so it stopped there. My daughter, she had the BRCA gene, and she went and had her breasts removed and her ovaries removed when she was probably 48. Now she's living happily ever after, she did the right thing.
SPREADING the WORD
You have to be careful what you tell people, because I've told some girls that they should get checked — I know a number of girls that had their breasts removed — they should go and keep track of their ovaries and make sure that doesn't happen to them. That happened to my wife, but none of them pay attention to you. Because, they’re like, “well, it's probably you. I'll never get cancer.” And that's the way I felt, because I didn't really have it in my family. I had some grandparents that had minor cancers, but nothing that killed them or anything. But it happens and it happens quick.
Advice
After you have breast cancer — I probably shouldn't say this, but they should have taken her ovaries out right away. Then she wouldn't have gotten ovarian cancer, and that's what killed her. But I've never heard, and I've done a lot of research on it, I've never heard any doctor say that's the truth, but that’s just my opinion. It was a big blow for my kids and for me.
I've been hooked up with the church here, I've been a custodian here for over 50 years, and the church did help a lot. At the beginning, I kind of blamed God for a long time, but I got over that now, and some of the things I've read have helped me a lot.
A video of Chuck’s conversation with the team can be found on our Portraits Project YouTube channel here.