By Ruth Ford – Correspondent
Chesley Chen reached a remarkable milestone this week: He completed a 100 vertical mile ski — 528,000 feet — to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).
Chesley has pledged to raise $100,000 for LLS, and thus far, has raised more than $25,000 of that through his own personal fundraising efforts. It’s all to support research and services for those battling blood cancers, and he skied in gratitude for his son, Tristan’s, recovery from leukemia.
“I wanted to raise awareness of Tristan’s story to bring hope to other blood cancer patients, their loved ones, and caregivers,” he said.
A fall from health
Three years ago, Concord native Tristan Chen was – almost literally – on top of the world. He quit a post-college stint as a software engineer in Seattle to pursue his passion full time: climbing.
Then in April 2022, Tristan, 25, took a fall during a climb in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Colorado, and banged his shoulder. That night he was surprised to see how big the bruise was. Over the next few days, instead of subsiding, the bruise got bigger. More bruising followed.
When Tristan finally texted a doctor friend in May about what was happening, she walked him through a series of diagnostic questions — did he feel sluggish, was he losing weight, did he see red spots under his skin. After he answered yes to all her questions, she ordered him to urgent care for a complete blood count test.
Overnight, Tristan went from being one of the world’s best rock climbers to a far more dangerous designation, a patient diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a bone marrow cancer. Twenty-four hours later his parents, Chesley and Mary, were by his side, ready to do whatever it took to help fight this blood cancer, which is rarely diagnosed before age 45.
“The leukemia just knocked him back,” Chesley recalls of the ordeal his son went through. “He was only 130 pounds, and he shrunk down to 110 pounds.” By mid-June, Tristan had undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and was in remission. After another round of chemo, he underwent a stem-cell/bone marrow transplant in August. His older brother Rowland donated the bone marrow. The stem cells came from an anonymous donor in Spain. In the middle of all his treatment, Tristan developed acute appendicitis.
“It was rough,” concedes Chesley, who with his wife, Mary, stayed in Colorado for months on end while his son fought through his way into recovery. After losing 15% of his body weight and all his hair, and spending 70 days in the hospital, Tristan was back to climbing in 2023, nine months after his diagnosis.
‘A creative outlet’
Today, at 28, Tristan is cancer free and climbing and hiking in Colorado. It’s hard to articulate what it was like, getting such a terrifying diagnosis, he says, likening the experience to watching an egg roll off the counter: “You know what’s going to happen and you’re too far away to stop it.”
These days, along with rock climbing, Tristan also spends time making ceramics. After his long illness, “I realized a big aspect of life was missing: a creative outlet,” says Tristan. Recalling how much he enjoyed ceramics in high school, he found a local studio and now divides his time between climbing and pottery.
In conjunction with his 100-mile ski, in appreciation for the amazing care Tristan received at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical hospital, Chesley joined the Shred For Red national skiing fundraiser in Deer Valley, Utah, this past December. Hosted by the LLS, the Shred For Red fundraiser raised more than $415,000 to support research and services for the more than 1.7 million people battling blood cancers. The money raised by the fundraiser goes directly to support the doctors who were instrumental in Tristan’s care, Chesley says.
Strong roots in Concord
“I come from the biotech industry,” Chesley says. “We didn’t know anything about leukemia.” But he and his wife threw themselves into learning everything they could about the disease and supporting the LLS in raising money for a cure.
Today, the Chens, who raised four children in Concord and saw them happily through their graduations from Concord-Carlisle High School, are amazed at the progress and determination of their son Tristan.
“We thought he was a goner, but he made it through,” Chesley says quietly. This April, Tristan will join his parents in a 46-flight climb in Boston in One Beacon as a way to raise money for bone marrow treatments. The fundraiser, “Big Climb,” also sponsored by the LLS, will be held April 26.
Tristan is grateful for all the support from his friends and family,. As his father finished his final miles, he said he’s urging everyone he knows to sign up to be a bone marrow donor.
To join the national bone marrow registry, visit nmdp.org.
To support the Chen family fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, visit cure.lls.org/fundraiser/5817368.
