After cancer and weight loss surgery, Jason is back on his bike

“The joy of life is the gift of the journey.”

Jason Finley has this quote tattooed on his body in Old Norse rune characters. This mantra helps to commemorate the challenges he’s overcome and remind him to be grateful for the gift of life.

Finley’s journey hasn’t been easy, and the gift of life wasn’t always assured.

In 2010, Finley was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For 10 months, he fought the disease at the MultiCare Regional Cancer Center.

Toward the end of his treatment, he acquired a lung infection as a result of his chemotherapy. To combat the infection, Finley was given a high dose of prednisone for two and a half months. The result of this was a rapid weight gain of more than 150 pounds.

There was hope. Finley beat cancer and today remains 100 percent cancer free. But it came with a cost. The chemo took a toll on his body, causing neuropathy in his feet and weakness in his legs.

Finley knew he needed to lose the weight, but his body wasn’t making it easy. Inspired by his experience at the cancer center, he got a job at MultiCare in supply chain and started working night shifts — which tends to result in less-than-ideal nutritional habits.

But Finley doesn’t back down from a challenge. He started in the Medical Weight Loss program through the MultiCare Center for Weight Loss & Wellness.

When he still wasn’t getting the results he needed, Finley did his research and talked to his medical weight loss team to figure out if surgery was right for him.

“People say it’s the easy way out, and it can be if you do the surgery and nothing else,” he says. “But to get a transformative result, it takes work. I wanted to make the most of this tool — the surgery — because I wanted a big transformation in every sense of the word.”

Aside from not feeling great in his body, Finley had a CPAP machine for sleep apnea and medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Finley had his gastric sleeve surgery in November 2017 and got to work. He wanted to do everything he could to keep his body strong and mitigate weight loss changes, such as loose skin, through muscle gain. He drank protein shakes, worked out with a trainer for seven months and recently started training with an MMA fighter training for Ninja Warrior who is helping Finley take his strength to the next level.

To date, Finley has lost 170 pounds and plans to keep going. He’s been able to toss all the medication and say goodbye to the CPAP. He just completed his first 5K and is looking forward to more, including participating in a Tough Mudder race next year.

But the most exciting victory for Finley is that he’s back on his bike, which he truly missed after the cancer diagnosis and weight gain. Finley and a friend who also underwent weight loss surgery (inspired by Finley’s success) celebrated their new healthy futures with a 52-mile mountain biking journey through Olympic National Park. He is having a cycling adventure with friends in Lake Tahoe this October and plans to ride in Mary Bridge Children’s Courage next year.

“This has truly been the change I was looking for,” says Finley. “I’m grateful for this journey and I don’t plan to stop.”