“I have a death sentence,” says Chris Casebeer while unbuttoning the top of his shirt to show me the catheter that delivers chemotherapy into his chest. Chris has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and a few months ago, he felt defeated.
“I’d sit on the couch watching MSNBC, until one day I’d had enough,” explains Chris, who decided to get back to work, and get back to living. “I focus on today as best as I can,” he tells me, and himself. “Be in the here now.”
Chris came to UCSB in 1964, and was a member of the volleyball team that won the 1969 national college championships. Athletics has always played a meaningful role in his life. “It gives you life lessons on how to deal with adversity and loss,” he said. “If you lose a match, you get an opportunity to play again.”