Daily Herald, Provo, UT, July 27, 2006 – Natalie Evans

RV-ing across the US to raise money for the National Brain Tumor Foundation

It
started as a last chance trip for love of trains and friendship. Now,
three people in an old RV, purchased for $600, are on a crusade to cure
brain tumors.

Eric Stephens, of San Jose, Calif.,
collapsed at home in February 2005. He’d just finished riding his
mountain bike home from work.

"When I tried to
stand up again, I just couldn’t," Stephens said. Fighting the paralysis
caused a nine-hour seizure, leading to kidney failure. Six months
later, Stephens was told he had an inoperable brain tumor, the size of
an apricot.

"At that point, we started realizing,
it’s now or never because if it’s that aggressive, he might not be here
in a year," Stephens’s friend, Eugene Vicknair, said of the trip that’s
taking them across the western United States to look at historic
railroads and railroad museums.

The group, which
includes Vicknair’s girlfriend Wendy Holtz and for the first part of
the journey included a friend who’s also a paramedic, is on the last
leg of the adventure, heading back to San Jose. They started their trip
July 13 by passing through the Nevada desert. Then they landed in
Arizona for the Grand Canyon and stopped in New Mexico to see some
American Indian sites there. They stopped in Colorado to see family and
to participate in the National Brain Tumor Foundation’s Angel Walk, and
also hit Wyoming.

It’s a trip the two friends
have been talking about doing for 16 years, since they road tripped to
Colorado to rescue a friend in need. Along the way, Stephens caught
Vicknair’s contagious love for tracks and everything that runs on them.

"This could be my last chance to really do
something," Stephens said of the trip. His cancer is at stage four.
Stage five is fatal.

"As long as they can stop its growth and treat it before it gets any bigger, I’m OK," Stephens said.

As
the two men — friends since high school when Stephens was Ebenezer
Scrooge and Vicknair was Jacob Marley in "A Christmas Carol" musical –
planned the trip, they decided to make it bigger than just them.

They’ve
turned the trip into one of awareness for brain tumors. They are trying
to raise $5,000 for the National Brain Tumor Foundation. So far,
they’ve raised $610 and they are already halfway through the trip.
Fundraising efforts have been through a Web site and their RV, which is
covered with decals about the trip and the foundation. A donation box
by the door tells of their quest.

Part of the
problem of fundraising, Vicknair said, is that the trip has cost much
more than they expected. They fixed up the RV after finding it — it
had no floor, and Stephens, though paralyzed and using a scooter or
walker for mobility, crawled on his stomach, stapling the carpet.
They’ve cut costs where they can, but Vicknair estimates it will have
cost $9,000-$10,000 by the time they arrive back in San Jose. It leaves
little for the group to donate.

Highlights of the
Utah part of the trip have included a stop at Dinosaur National
Monument on Wednesday, and they will tour railroad museums in Salt Lake
City and Ogden today.

Stephens has also seen
several family members along the way. He’s a descendent of Heber C.
Kimball, an early LDS apostle, so while Vicknair may have had a
railroad hobby longer, Stephens can share history from his Utah roots.

Seeing
tumor survivors in Denver gives Stephens hope, and he already has
ambitions for when the exhaustion from chemotherapy treatments finally
fades. He’d like to be a disability advocate, making sure places comply
with regulations in the Americans With Disability Act. He’d also like
to have children with his wife, whom he calls "his rock" of strength as
he’s been in and out of the hospital.

Those interested in donating to the trip and its expenses can go to www.phoenixpartners.net/URA/. Those interested in making a donation to the National Brain Tumor Foundation in Stephens’s and Vicknair’s names can log on to www.FirstGiving.com/EricsBigAdventure.