Thankful People: Millersville resident Jeff Bollinger lives his dreams after rare cancer diagnosis

It's a common practice at Thanksgiving to go around the table before or after the meal, so everyone can share what it is they are most thankful for that year.

This Thanksgiving, it's not just the oft-spoken God and family Jeff Bollinger is grateful for, it's a different group. Without doctors and scientists unraveling treatment for his type of cancer, he wouldn't be here today.

In February 2011, after months of fatigue and exhaustion, Bollinger, an avid runner, was diagnosed with a rare, incurable form of blood cancer, multiple myeloma.

Bollinger says his first reaction after the diagnosis wasn't shock or fear.

"I felt relieved we knew what we were dealing with," he says.

Jeff Bollinger poses for a photo Nov. 15 at his home near Millersville.Fred Lynch

When he got home, he searched the internet for more information, and saw grim stories about how long most patients lived with the disease, which many listed as three to eight years.

"I've learned as the years have progressed, that's not necessarily the case," he says.

Though the disease has no cure, Bollinger's doctors advised him there was treatment that could help keep the disease at bay.

The first step in the treatment course was a stem cell, or bone-marrow transplant. Some people receive marrow from donors, others self-donate, because in many cases the cancer has not invaded stem cells.

By February 2012, Bollinger underwent a self-donated stem-cell transplant. During the procedure, all blood cells are removed, and the stem cells are inserted, where they begin to form new red and white blood cells, as well as platelets.

A wall of deer trophies remind Jeff Bollinger of memorable hunting experiences.Fred Lynch

With zero blood cells, Bollinger was isolated in the hospital to minimize the risk of an infection because the treatment initially eradicates the body's ability to fight off viruses and bacteria.

"It was a 'Boy in the [Plastic] Bubble,' type deal," he recalled.

He was hospitalized for three weeks.

After the transplant, Bollinger still has regular chemotherapy treatments, but despite that, he remains positive, keeping up his routine of running and participating in marathons.

"I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I can still do it," he says.

Jeff Bollinger displays some of his successful deer-hunting experiences.Fred Lynch

On Dec. 2, he will run a half-marathon -- 13.1 miles -- in Memphis, Tennessee, benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It's a race he's run before, just nine months after his diagnosis.

"It is the slowest one I'd ever done, but it was the most meaningful," Bollinger says. At one point in the marathon, he says he considered quitting, but just then the path took runners through the campus of St. Jude, where child cancer patients were cheering for the runners. Seeing the children changed his mind.

He says he remembers his thoughts that day: "They are going through, at 5 and 6 years old, what I'm going through right now. I can do this."

Bollinger says he believes running and staying fit have helped him fight his cancer.

Early on in his treatment, Bollinger began participating in clinical drug trials, something he continues to do.

Jeff Bollinger shows the 6x6, or 12-point elk he harvested in central Wyoming near Casper.Fred Lynch

He is committed to continuing with the drug trials in the hopes of helping others who have the disease in the future.

"Anything I can do to help them. If it wasn't for people willing to do clinical trials 20 years ago before I got this disease, we wouldn't have the drugs that we have now."

Though drugs have not reversed the cancer, they have kept his disease from getting worse, which posits the unusual group at the top of Bollinger's gratitude list.

"I'm glad we have doctors and scientists giving extraordinary amounts of time in their lives combating this disease," he says.

The work of the researchers and physicians has given Bollinger the opportunity to live life on his terms.

Jeff Bollinger admires the photographs of the Eiffel Tower he made while visiting Paris.Fred Lynch

He has begun to travel extensively, something he says he always wanted to do.

"I decided I would quit putting things off," Bollinger says. "I decided to live all those dreams I've always had."

He has taken a month-long trek around Europe, visiting Russia, Germany, Austria and Italy. On his next trip, he returned to Germany, and went on to Belgium and Switzerland, where he spent a week hiking in the Alps. Plans for his next trip include New Zealand and Scandinavia, and returning to Russia to see the northern lights.

He has adopted a way of life inspired by a quote attributed commonly to Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."