Lance Mackey is an American dog musher and dog sled racer from Fairbanks, Alaska, who is a four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest and four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. In this video Lance, a cancer-fighter and survivor, talks about his passion, his disease and his dogs.
According to Wikipedia, “Mackey was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2001 but continued sled dog racing entering the 2002 Iditarod race. After scratching from that race, he took a full year off from racing to recover from the disease. He is now considered cancer-free; however, Mackey suffered nerve damage in his left index finger as a result of the operation to remove the cancerous tumor. The nerve damage caused such unbearable pain in the finger that Mackey chose to have the finger surgically removed.”
This photo is taken on March 2010 at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska. The Iditarod is known as “the last great race”. It goes 1,100 miles from Willow to Nome through unforgiving terrain and downright nasty weather.
