Profile: Charles Andrews
Carmel Valley’s Charles Andrews was born a fighter.
At the age of 10, he and his parents were leaving their home on Oahu, Hawaii, for a Sunday morning picnic. They heard a humming in the distance and instinctively dove to the ground as Japanese bombers roared overhead.
It was December 7, 1941. Andrews’ father, a civil engineer and deep-sea diver at Pearl Harbor, raced off to the naval station a few miles away.
“I remember a couple of things,” Andrews says. “I remember grabbing my BB gun. And my mother was scared to death. But I remember I wasn’t scared.”
So it speaks to the magnitude of the word “cancer” that it terrified Andrews when he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 1996.
“I was very, very depressed when I found out,” Andrews says. “It took me awhile to get over the concept. My mother died of cancer at a young age. Her brothers died of cancer. I always felt I’d get cancer, and it took my breath away.”
Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. It begins in melanocytes — cells that make the skin pigment called melanin. Although melanoma accounts for only about 4 percent of all skin cancer cases, it causes most skin cancer-related deaths.
The number of new melanomas diagnosed in the United States is increasing. Since 1973, its incidence has more than doubled.
Andrews, now 71, led an indomitable life as a father, a physical therapist, and especially as an athlete. He was an All-American soccer player, basketball player, and golfer at San Francisco State. Drafted into the army in 1954 (he did his basic training at Fort Ord), he starred on the Fort Chaffee (Arkansas) basketball team.
Beset by an arthritic hip at age 56, he jumped on a bike and now rarely gets off. A total hip replacement did little to slow him down. Today he rides more than 30 miles per day, and roughly 7,000 miles per year. He has done more than 100 “century” rides (100 miles), and on seven occasions has biked the Death Ride in the Sierras. The altimeter on his bike says he has climbed 106,000 feet since September 2002. Andrews’ resting heart rate is 42 (72 is considered healthy), and he is truly a survivor.
In 1996, Andrews detected a lump on his back that he presumed to be a fatty tumor. Once diagnosed, Andrews was treated at Community Hospital and the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center.
Andrews’ treatment included regular injections of synthetic interferon to boost his immune system. Despite the flu-like
symptoms and fatigue that resulted, he continued to ride his bike.
Later, he flew to Austin, Texas, where he found himself riding alongside cycling legends Greg LeMond and Miguel Indurain, who were participating in the Ride for the Roses in support of cancerstricken racer Lance Armstrong.
“Armstrong sets a great example,” Andrews says of the man who would go on to win the Tour de France four times (so far). “I look to him every day.”
Andrews has gone on to tour England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Tuscany, and the south of France atop his bike.
“People with cancer tell me I’m an inspiration,” Andrews says. “I tell them, ‘Keep on riding, and you’ll be a survivor, too.’” 