After Beating Cancer, Andy Hutchison Gets Back to Riding Waves
Two bouts with cancer doesn't stop lifelong surfer
Andy Hutchison has beaten two forms of leukemia, with the help of his cancer care team at Scripps Health, and is back to surfing breaks around San Diego County.
Two bouts with cancer doesn't stop lifelong surfer
There’s a term to describe what happens to surfers when they’re unable to paddle out beyond the breaking waves: They’re “caught inside.” Lifelong surfer Andy Hutchison seldom has been caught inside. But he remembers experiencing a similar feeling on dry land.
The athletic 35-year-old was getting ready to enjoy a baseball game with family but was too weak to climb the stadium stairs to reach his upper-deck seat. “When I couldn’t physically make it up the steps, I knew it was time to see a doctor,” Andy says.
Tests revealed the Encinitas resident had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a fast-growing cancer of the white blood cells most often found in children. Scripps oncologist Sabina Wallach, MD, oversaw his cancer care and prescribed an aggressive course of chemotherapy.
Andy’s cancer was in remission within 45 days of starting chemotherapy, but he completed three years of treatment as prescribed. “With leukemia, it’s all or nothing. You battle through the chemo, as if you’re still fighting it.”
Besides the good news of his quick remission, Andy drew strength from another source. One of his many hospital stays at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla coincided with the birth of his first child in the very same facility. Andy made the trip from his bed on the cancer unit on the sixth floor to the mother-baby unit on the second floor to observe the delivery of his daughter, Paige.
“Being there for her birth was overwhelming and inspiring, like going from one extreme to another,” he says.
Life took another turn for Andy a few years later. During a routine follow-up exam, he was diagnosed with chronic myelocytic leukemia, a slow-growing cancer involving excessive white blood cells. While he began searching for a bone marrow donor, he also started taking a relatively new drug, Gleevec. Andy was in clinical remission within 30 days and remains free of cancer today.
Now back to surfing, Andy credits his recovery to support from wife Beth, family and friends — and the care he received at Scripps. “Dr. Wallach is compassionate and caring, but she attacks the cancer relentlessly.”
Andy supports a variety of fundraising programs and volunteers as a surf instructor.
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