View Photos

Piqua, Ohio. Lung cancer survivor Jeff Meckstroth and his wife Rhonda represented Team Draft at the 2019 NFL Pro Bowl on January 27, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Jeff Meckstroth has served his community as a firefighter and paramedic and feeds the world as a farmer.  In 2015, a simple cough discussed during a routine annual physical led to a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage 4 lung cancer at age 57 was a shock as a non-smoker. We went from planning retirement to planning a funeral. Biomarker testing revealed Jeff was “lucky”, Jeff had a rare genetic form of lung cancer, this meant Jeff was eligible for targeted therapies, a simple pill taken daily. Three years later Jeff has just completed his fourth harvest since diagnosis.  Jeff and Rhonda are grateful for every day they are given and they are fighting for a cure. Jeff is currently being treated at Boston Massachusetts General Cancer Center and locally with the Kettering Cancer Center.  It takes a community of family, friends, co-workers, advocacy groups, and medical professionals to help a cancer family survive. We are grateful for our community and the many who have helped us during this difficult journey. We are truly blessed!

Jeff and Rhonda earned their trip to the 2019 NFL Pro Bowl by placing third in Team Draft’s 2019 Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge.

Surviving as a lung cancer patient and caregiver it takes teamwork focusing on being who we are and doing what we love! Our strategy is to be grateful! With modern medicine I am still able to farm and through advocacy efforts Rhonda works to keep me and all lung cancer survivors living life! The team draft platform has provided us an opportunity to add our local Cancer Center to the team and to educate our community about lung cancer. This community is where I’ve spent my entire life working as a firefighter and farmer. The success of our team work has resulted in going to the Pro Bowl for a once-in-a-lifetime experience combining making memories and lung cancer awareness. ~ Jeff Meckstroth

Founded by Draft and his late wife Keasha, who died of lung cancer in 2011 at the age of 38, Team Draft is dedicated to raising lung cancer awareness and increasing badly needed research funding through its Campaign To Change The Face Of Lung Cancer, which is committed to shattering the misconception that lung cancer is a “smoker’s disease.” The centerpiece of Team Draft’s Campaign is its annual Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge.

As Draft explains, “the Super Bowl Challenge gives us a unique opportunity to use the overwhelming media coverage surrounding the Super Bowl as a platform to raise critical public awareness about lung cancer on an international level.  With the game as a backdrop, we can use each survivor’s story to weave a broader narrative about the state of lung cancer and the hope that now exists for those battling the disease.”  And Team Draft’s efforts are paying off.

“The Super Bowl Challenge achieves amazing things in terms of public awareness and changing perceptions about lung cancer,” says Dr. Ross Camidge, the Director of Thoracic Oncology at Colorado University Cancer Center, the cancer center where two of last year’s Super Bowl Challenge winners were treated.

In addition to raising critical public awareness, the Super Bowl Challenge also raises funds for lung cancer organizations and treatment centers across North America.

Of this aspect of the Super Bowl Challenge, Dr. Camidge says, “you need somebody working on the national level. You need somebody working on the local level. Everybody wins.”

Jeff and Rhonda Meckstroth raised over $5,000 for their designated a beneficiary, Kettering Cancer Center, so they received 80% of their raised funds (-fees) and the remaining 20% will support Team Draft’s mission to change the face of lung cancer.

For the survivors who participate, the Super Bowl Challenge is so much more than just a fundraiser.

“Team Draft has really helped boost our family’s spirits during this challenging time,” says Dr. Lucy Kalanithi. In 2015, Lucy and her husband, Dr. Paul Kalanithi, won Team Draft’s inaugural Super Bowl Challenge and were able to join Team Draft in Phoenix, Arizona for Super Bowl 49.  Paul went on to write the bestselling memoir When Breath Becomes Air — a powerful and moving chronicle of his life and lung cancer journey — before passing away at the age of 37.

2016 Super Bowl Challenge winner, Kim Ringen says, “As a lung cancer survivor, I would highly recommend to anybody to put your hat in the ring because it is so uplifting to be associated with a group of people that are coming together to make a difference.”

To learn more about Team Draft’s 2019   Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge, visit https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/2019superbowlchallenge

Special thanks to NFL, Astra Zeneca, and all of our Team Draft supporters for helping make this experience possible.

About Team Draft

Team Draft, an initiative of the Chris Draft Family Foundation, is dedicated to raising lung cancer awareness and increasing research funding by shattering the misconception that lung cancer is a “smoker’s disease.”  Despite the fact that between 20,000 and 30,000 people who have never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer in the United States each year, the smoking stigma negatively impacts lung cancer research funding, Team Draft is out to change all that. To learn more about Team Draft, share your story, or make a donation, please visit www.teamdraft.org.

Jeff Meckstroth has served his community as a firefighter and paramedic and feeds the world as a farmer.  In 2015, a simple cough discussed during a routine annual physical led to a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage 4 lung cancer at age 57 was a shock as a non-smoker. We went from planning retirement to planning a funeral. Biomarker testing revealed Jeff was “lucky”, Jeff had a rare genetic form of lung cancer, this meant Jeff was eligible for targeted therapies, a simple pill taken daily. Three years later Jeff has just completed his fourth harvest since diagnosis.  Jeff and Rhonda are grateful for every day they are given and they are fighting for a cure. Jeff is currently being treated at Boston Massachusetts General Cancer Center and locally with the Kettering Cancer Center.  It takes a community of family, friends, co-workers, advocacy groups, and medical professionals to help a cancer family survive. We are grateful for our community and the many who have helped us during this difficult journey. We are truly blessed!

Jeff’s wife Rhonda is a lung cancer advocate working with ALK Positive Outreach, Biden Cancer Initiative and the American Cancer Society on an educational campaign for biomarker testing. Anyone with lungs can get lung cancer. We are hopeful for many more Harvest seasons and a cure! https://www.tdn-net.com/news/31034/lungevityfind-it-treat-it-live