Former Fostorian taking message on the road

A lot has been happening in the lives of former Fostoria resident Chuck Keels and his wife, Hannah. Since they were last in Fostoria in February, Chuck, a stage 4 colon cancer survivor, has assisted his wife in her fight against stage 4 breast cancer that has since spread. In the meantime, they've written a book called "Get Up and Live," helped others in their cancer fights through their Living Hope Cancer Foundation and planned a trip from their home in Phoenix in support of their book that will begin with a speaking engagement at 6 p.m. Friday at St. Wendelin Catholic Church Parish Hall, 323 N. Wood St. The public is welcome at no charge. Copies of the book will be available for purchase as will "Get Up and Live" T-shirts. "We're excited about that," Chuck Keels said in a phone interview of speaking at St. Wendelin. "Part of the reason is I went to St. Wendelin as a young man. I went to St. Wendelin schools for 11 years and was part of the church while I was in Fostoria, so it's kind of an honor to go back and speak. And, hopefully what it will do is bring some of the old classmates and some people out who I haven't seen in years, and we can kind of bring the community together. I like the idea of that, that it's at St. Wendelin." Chuck Keels wrote a book titled "Hi, I'm Chuck" about his past battle with cancer that, he said, included a divine intervention. Hannah Keels has also written a book, titled "Faith Like Skin." The theme of their fights with cancer is the namesake of the new book. They have held onto their Christian faith, a healthy lifestyle and a general approach of positivity in their battles, which has recently included the discovery of lesions in Hannah's brain. "When I get home from our trip, I start radiation," she said. "But I'm in good spirits." The Keelses were married on New Year's Day 2020 after meeting not long before. In the new book, Chuck touches on the early stages of their relationship, but "we really wanted to get into the meat and potatoes about the actual last few years of her cancer spreading and the challenges that we've faced," he said. "She's had three major surgeries," he said. "One was a seven-hour spinal surgery, and after they reconstructed her spine, she was in a wheelchair for 3 1/2 months. And all along the time that she's going through this, I'm her caregiver and doing the best I can. "I'm watching her and she would set goals, like, 'I'm going to get out of this wheelchair.' In my mind, I'm thinking, 'Geez, this is cancer. This is tough.' And now she's walking again," he said. "Of course, her health is No. 1 in our daily priorities. No. 2 is calls coming in from cancer people who we're coaching, or somebody who just heard about us, or somebody who just got their first diagnosis. "The third thing is the foundation's growing," he said. "We don't want it to be unstable or not a solid business that's not going to be around long after we're gone, so we're putting a lot of time into just building the foundation and making sure that people can go on our website (getupandlive.org) and watch the coaching videos that are all free. We want to make sure it all stays free for cancer patients, caregivers and the people around them. That's a huge priority as well. That means we've got to hustle a little bit for fundraising and things like that in order to keep that free." From Fostoria, Chuck and Hannah will do some business in Columbus for a couple of days before heading for Pennsylvania for some speaking engagements and to meet with people who have expressed an interest in filming a documentary about them. Looking ahead, Chuck in March plans to embark on a coast-to-coast cycling excursion to raise awareness of the Living Hope Cancer Foundation. He plans to cycle 50 miles per day while wearing a different sponsor's T-shirt each day with Hannah driving along in a recreational vehicle in which they'll sleep. "A foundation that gears toward coaching a positive mindset - there's not a lot that's out there," he said. "We're going to start contacting local news stations in the areas that we're driving through and national news (outlets) so we can let a lot of people know what the Living Hope Cancer Foundation is and how crazy I am for doing this."