Ethan Zohn

In 2009, “Survivor: Africa” winner and former professional soccer player Ethan Zohn was diagnosed with CD20 positive Hodgkin’s lymphoma— at age 35. “My only connection to cancer at that time was through my father, who died of colorectal cancer when I was 14 years old,” said Zohn, in a recent interview with 

. “And so, when I heard those three words, 

, I instantly just thought cancer equals death.”

But according to Zohn, his time on the hit reality show and on the soccer, field equipped him with the right outlook for taking on multiple rounds of chemotherapy, 22 radiation sessions and two stem cell transplants.

: What was it like having two different stem cell transplants? 

Zohn: You know, for me, it was a very difficult process. It was painful. It was lonely. It was frightening. However, I had a mindset of, this is what I needed to do to get better. When a doctor tells you to do something, you'll die, you pretty much do it. There aren't too many choices when you're diagnosed with this type of protocol. So, for me, I just had to do it. And I had to set my mind. I had to accept the fact that this was going on, so I could move on to the next phase, which is to map out how I wanted to live this next six, 12, or 18 months of my life.

And so for me, knowing it was a curative process made it a little bit more easy to accept, I guess you could say. However, the actual recovery from these transplants, picking my life up after you're in remission, that's where life got difficult for me. But the actual transplants themselves, it's just kind of something I set my mind to.

I'm an athlete, I grew up as a competitive athlete. I'm a former professional soccer player, so, I like setting goals and challenges for myself. Not that this is the one I chose for myself, however, taking the attitude of an athlete and understanding that like, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. There's a beginning, there's a middle, there's an end. And I looked at this like I was just training for the biggest game of my life.

I literally got in shape to go into the stem cell transplant. If you can believe it: mentally, physically, spiritually, I got in shape, so I could go into the transplant because I knew the stronger, I was going in, the stronger I would be going out.

How did being a professional soccer player and winning the third season of Survivor all prepare you for cancer, would you say?

Well, exactly that: having a winning mentality. Also, on the flip side, is understanding how to fail or lose and still be able to pick yourself up to come back as a stronger, better person.

Like, as an athlete, I'm a goalkeeper in soccer. So, it's a pretty high-pressure situation and position on the field of soccer. However, you win some games, I can have the best game of my life, and when we lose, everyone hates me. Or I could have the best game of my life and everyone loves me. So like, I understand what it's like to lose, and have to pick yourself up after that to be able to come back and perform at a high level again.

So, I took that kind of same attitude into my fight with cancer, where I normally have some ups and some downs, but over the long time, I'll be a winner in this thing. And for me, that was that was a big part of it, to have that that mentality of going into it.

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“Survivor: Africa” winner Ethan Zohn details his journey with cancer and discovering that it isn’t a sprint, but a marathon.
 

Ethan Zohn: Cancer Treatment is "A Marathon, Not a Sprint"

When Ethan Zohn was diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin lymphoma in 2009 at age 35, he did not anticipate the isolation he experienced as a young adult patient with cancer. But by reaching out to advocacy organizations and other individuals like him, he found a community that helped him through the overwhelming anxiety that nearly consumed his life.

, “Survivor: Africa” winner Zohn opened up about the fears and insecurities that he experienced as a young adult with cancer and shared how “nothing creates comfort and confidence more than knowing you're not alone when facing life challenge”.

: What would you say was the hardest part of having cancer?

Zohn: The hardest part for me was the recovery, the survivorship, and just being a young adult, going through cancer was difficult.

I think we have a whole host of problems or concerns that pediatrics and older cancer patients don't necessarily have to go through. Pediatric (patients), you’ve got your parents, they're taking care of you. As you get older, maybe you're married, you’ve got health insurance, you’ve got a job, you’ve got a partner, things might be a little bit settled.

But as a young adult, I was 35 years old. I survived this thing. And now all of a sudden, I’ve got to live the rest of my life. Who's going to want to date me? Can I have kids? Am I going to lose my job? Have health insurance? I'm different than all my friends. I pressed the pause button on my life while all my other friends are just starting. They're having kids, jobs, marriage, adventures; not for me at that time.

So, those hosts of psychosocial issues that go through your mind as a young adult. Going through cancer was just debilitating for me, and the anxiety and the fear of relapse, for me, was overwhelming and totally consumed my life. It was really difficult for me to come back from cancer.

So then, how did you combat those challenges?

. I leaned on the community around me and other cancer survivors who had been through a similar situation. I started talking with them and got into focus groups and doing all these incredible programs like First Ascent, which is an outdoor adventure camp for young adult cancer survivors. (I also like) Epic Experience, Stupid Cancer, Twist Out Cancer, all these things really made me feel like I'm not alone.

When you go through cancer, it's a really lonely feeling. I was never surrounded by so many people that loved me more than anything in the world. But I felt so alone at that time. And I've learned that nothing creates comfort and confidence more than knowing you're not alone when facing life challenge.

So, I encourage anyone out there who is feeling sad or lonely or depressed or anything, to reach out to other people and connect with them. And if you’ve got to call up someone or go to a shrink, or there are organizations like Imerman Angels out there, which is one-to-one, peer-to-peer cancer support, that was a game changer for me.

Being a young adult with cancer can feel like an isolating journey, but "Survivor: Africa" winner Ethan Zohn details how a community can form even in the unlikeliest of places. 

Facing the Challenges of Young Adult Cancer By Finding a Community

In many ways, former professional soccer player and “Survivor: Africa” winner Ethan Zohn feels that cancer prepared him for the isolation and uncertainty that has been associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer to navigating the chaos, he explained, is to find acceptance.

, Zohn opened up about how his experience with a rare form of Hodgkin lymphoma — and the intense treatments he went through to fight it – taught him how to not only deal with isolation but how to find a way to grow beyond it. 

: You went through a lot of chemotherapy, radiation, two stem cell transplants. That’s a lot of aggressive treatment, and there’s a lot of isolation that goes with that. Did that experience, in your opinion, make this whole COVID-19, social distancing (that we're slowly coming out of now), did that kind of make it a little bit easier for you or prepare you in any way?

Zohn: I feel like I've been preparing my whole life for this. (Laughs) Like, three times on “Survivor”, 260 days in isolation and like years of (being) socially isolated because of the transplants. You know, this was the life I was living: no crowds, no public places, taxis, can’t eat in restaurants, mask and gloves everywhere you go. That's the life I lived.

And it's interesting because as a cancer patient, I'm protecting myself from the world. And I'm educating people about what's going on with me to try to protect myself from everyone. I think the silver lining, and what's going on right now with this pandemic, is the fact that we are all going through the same thing at the same exact time in some shape.

So, it gets back to that whole thing of just feeling isolated and alone, if you are feeling that, now is the perfect time to lean on the communities now more so than ever before. It's good to lean on community.

And then the other part of that, I think was for me, is just acceptance. The first step to anything you can't control is acceptance. Because all the denial, and this rush to be productive and get things online and take your yoga class. Everything is so organized and prepared in life and we'd like to control things as human beings, but now we can't control anything.

And feeling out of control creates anxiety and uncertainty, and that stuff can cause destructive decisions. So, living in denial is not a good place to be. Of course, I didn't want to accept there was this cancer inside me trying to kill me. But I had to, in order to move on to that next phase, which was, like I said, to map out how I want to live for the rest of this time.

So, I encourage everyone to just try to work on ways to accept what's going on, because then you can map out the next phase of your life, which was important for me.

In an interview with CURE, “Survivor: Africa” winner Ethan Zohn talks about how his cancer journey changed his perspective on life and helps him to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

Ethan Zohn

Ethan Zohn: Cancer Treatment is "A Marathon, Not a Sprint"

Facing the Challenges of Young Adult Cancer By Finding a Community

Acceptance is Vital to Getting Through Cancer and COVID-19, Says Survivor Ethan Zohn

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