We Are Superman

Founded by David Clark, a former 320-pound alcoholic, drug addict, food junkie turned accomplished endurance athlete, bestselling author, plant-based fighter, and happiness warrior. Ultramarathoner and coach Bill Stahl is continuing David's legacy to bring you inspirational stories of ordinary people overcoming alcoholism, addiction, obesity, or catastrophic injuries or illnesses to accomplish epic achievements like running ultramarathons, climbing Everest, etc. We also bring you world-class athletes and others involved in the endurance sports space, medical providers, and others who can help you up your own game in athletics as well as in life so you feel, look, and perform better. As David said, we will help you look into the far side of the universe where anything is possible and all things are eventual.

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We Are Superman

#342 - WE ARE LEN FORKAS CONNECTING KIDS WITH CANCER ONE SUMMIT AT A TIME

April 24, 2025 • Season 9 • Episode 16

We haven’t chatted with anyone in Nepal for a couple of weeks, so we thought we’d go back there with Len Forkas, who is heading to Mt. Everest to cap bagging all of the Seven Summits – the tallest peaks on all seven continents. This achievement also brings him a step closer to completing the coveted Explorers’ Grand Slam, which includes the Seven Summits and trekking the last degree of latitude to the North and South Poles. He began his quest in 2013 summitting Kilimanjaro after accomplishing endurance feats like biking the Race Across America. Len does all of this to support a charity he founded called Hopecam, which does amazing work connecting cancer-afflicted kids to their schools and classmates. It was spurred after his own son Matt was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 9, and aside from the daunting treatments, Matt endured the challenge of isolation from his friends. Back in 2002, there was no Facetime or Skype, so Len arranged for a video connection between Matt and his class, and Len noticed what a sea change that was for Matt’s overall outlook, as well as how much it benefitted his classmates to interact with him and help demystify cancer to them. This led to the birth of Hopecam, which began connecting 50 hospitalized kids and led to partnering with St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and eventually affiliating with 180 hospitals and helping 1000 inspiring kids at a time. A majority of these kids come from Title 1 schools and whose families often can’t afford Internet service. Len has a personal connection with many of these kids, and for this Everest project, he is paired up with a fifth-grader in Louisiana. In this chat, Len talks about how teamwork plays roles in accomplishing both his projects as well as in Hopecam’s important mission for which he is aiming to raise $1,000,000. You’ll also hear about his many other extreme adventures and the preparations for them and about a couple of harrowing episodes he had where divine intervention may have saved his life so he could continue his mission. Len is one of the nicest people with whom I’ve had the pleasure to chat, and this riveting episode is filled with so many great life lessons about humility, teamwork, finding purpose, and listening to and learning from others. He also shares great lessons he’s learned about uniting people to work toward common goals in his book, What Spins the Wheel.

Len Forkas

lenforkas.com

Support Hopecam today at hopecam.org

Instagram @lenforkasjr

LinkedIn and X Len Forkas

His books What Spins the Wheel and Cold Hard Truth are available on Amazon

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram and Threads @stahlor and @we_are_superman_podcast
YouTube We Are Superman Podcast

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