I was born in 1967, in the little town of Yuba City Ca. Was a teenager during the crazy weird 80s. Went to college and got a B.S. degree at Humboldt State University as a wildlife Biologist. Fell in love with Matt Broyles, another Humboldt wildlife biologist, and we got married the day after I graduated May 19, 1990. We moved to Oregon to save wildlife species and their valuable habitat! I got a job with the Forest Service and Matt with the Bureau of Land Management (B.L.M.). We both worked to save spotted owls that needed some old growth forest. I worked as a wildlife biologist for 10 years, changing from the federal government job, to working with Boise Cascade.
Then in June 2000 I was diagnosed with the GBM brain tumor. I quit my job as a wildlife biologist because my brain just could not handle it all anymore, and I wanted to be a “stay at home” mommy. My two boys, Grant and Clint, were only 3 and 1 years old.
Over the last 14 years I’ve had 5 recurrences of the GBM, I’ve gone through 6 brain surgeries (2000, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2014), conformal radiation, and over 3 years on Temodar.
I’ve decided my new job is “An Encourager!” I often spend hours each day, while the boys are at school, writing back to other brain tumor patients who contacted me via email with question like “What do you do to survive?” “What treatments are you on?” “What doctors do you see?” “What bad side effects and disabilities do you have?” …….
I often get the same questions patients newly diagnosed with brain tumors ask. And I love being there to encourage others, like Matthew Fullerton did for me back when I was first diagnosed with a GBM – KOKO keep on keeping on!
So I decided to put together a web page, hoping to reach out to others climbing their own life’s mountains. So now I’m not a wildlife biologist anymore, my new job is “Encourager”. Cheering those on battling their own brain tumors. So please feel free to contact me via email, and I’ll do what I can to give you hope!
Sincerely,
Cheryl Broyles
Life's Mountains:What A Brain Tumor Survivor Learned
Learn more about my journey from my inspirational book!
Life’s Mountains climbs with Cheryl Broyles to the summit of California’s Mount Shasta and through the trial of “terminal” brain cancer. Told she had only a year to live, Cheryl did everything she could to stay alive. Four years later, still breathing, she and her husband Matt planned to climb Mount Shasta to celebrate her survivorship. Cheryl describes the similarity between climbing mountain trails and living through life’s trials. She gives hope for reaching each peak, seeing life anew and loving each day through good and bad times.