Think Lucky, To Be Lucky A Profile on David Benzer By Alex Hammerschmidt
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ince 1983, he has filmed every playoff game, 18 World Series, and over 2,500 baseball games. He’s comfortable on the big stage, making split-second decisions, with 61 million people watching. This is a little of what David Benzer does for a living. It was in the late 70’s when his passion for camera work was ignited. David’s good friend, who worked in television, invited him to watch him shoot a 49ers game. Prior to this time, he has worked in the music industry as a “Roadie” and MC for bands such as Tower of Power, Pablo Cruz, and The Jefferson
Airplane. At one point, his comedic talent landed him a job as the host of the Bay Area Music Awards. However, the experience of watching his friend on the sideline and shooting his own stills in the middle of the action, inspired him to explore a new career. He discovered that he really enjoyed and had a gift for photography and capturing the emotion of the moment. His dedication to learning the craft and his talent earned him the opportunity to work in television. David has covered football, basketball, and baseball, but he’s primarily focused on baseball. Arriving at the ballpark seven
hours before a game, he has to make sure all the cables are run from the TV truck and his camera is properly set up for the game. Sometimes he has to put everything up and pull all nighters tearing it down and packing it up, or “striking” as is called. He also has to spend time travelling to and from stadiums setting up and taking down equipment. As a camera operator for the last 33 years, he’s worked with almost every professional sports franchise in the Bay Area: the Giants, Athletics, 49ers, Warriors, and the Sharks. But his primary work has been where his heart is: the San Francisco Giants.
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orn in San Francisco, and raised in Palo Alto, David Benzer has been a Giants fan his whole life. In 2010, no one thought the Giants would make it to the playoffs, never mind the World Series. The victories were never a sure thing. Duane Kuiper, one half of the Giants’ Emmy-award winning television announcing team of Kruk (Mike Krukow) and Kuip, commented during one of the many close games: “Giants baseball: Torture” because it seemed like every game, every inning hung in the balance, but, somehow they found a way. The team he had followed for 54 years, the San Francisco Giants had won the World Series. Then just 24 hours after the Giant’s victory parade, David got the news that made the World Series championship seem insignificant. For the previous four
months he had felt a tingle in his throat that his doctor thought might be a simple irritation. But, the feeling that something was wrong had not gone away. Rather than attending the victory celebrations with his friends and colleagues, he made a second
body. Knowing the stage of disease helps the doctor plan treatment and estimate the person’s prognosis. David diagnosis of Stage IV throat cancer meant that it had travelled beyond the primary site to his lymph nodes. Due to its advanced stage, David was treated with both radiation and chemotherapy. Mayoclinic. org confirms the use of both chemotherapy and radiation therapy stating, “for more advanced throat cancers, radiation therapy may be combined with chemotherapy or surgery.” Yet, having cancer isn’t the painful part. It’s the treatment. The combination of nausea from the chemotherapy and the radiation of his mouth was devastating. He couldn’t eat because the radiation burned the tissues in his mouth and throat. Even drinking water was excruciatingly painful. During his treatment, David lost over 65 pounds. He was medicated with morphine and had to be fed through a feeding tube for four months. He almost died twice during the treatment. At one of his lowest points, when he wasn’t sure if he would make it, he made a promise to God, that if he were to be given a second chance at life, he would make a difference in the lives of other people fighting cancer. Miraculously his treatment was finally completed and there was no evidence of disease.
“I want to fill the rooms with music and visual distractions and comfort, to keep people from focusing on the fear.
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appointment with his doctor. As the doctor looked down his throat with a scope, David could tell from his doctor’s demeanor that something was wrong. His doctor removed the scope and told him, “You have cancer.” It was diagnosed as Stage IV throat, tongue, and lymph node cancer. David said, “At that moment, the World Series victory that I had waited my whole life to see didn’t seem that exciting. Driving home, I was numb. It was as if my life went from glowing color to a flat black and white still.” The treatment began soon after his diagnosis. Cancer is staged from Stage 0: early cancer to Stage IV where cancer has spread to other organs in the
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nce in remission, he could return to the career he loved, but he wanted to give something back. When he was diagnosed with cancer, the medical bills, even with dual insurances, were extremely expensive. He knew other people with cancer who did not have the benefit of two insurances. He wanted to have a way for people to make donations to help pay for medical bills where they could claim it as a charitable contribution. He was also motivated to raise money for throat cancer research and to education others about the rapid rise in throat cancer among men. The David Benzer Torture Cancer Foundation was founded to do these things. David’s thought on the name of the foundation was that he felt literally tortured by the treatment and wanted a way to torture the cancer- to help people fight something they couldn’t see. I talked with his wife Madison who told me, “We didn’t start the foundation until he was done with the treatment and it served as a distraction for him. It was something for him to focus on instead of on the side effects of treatment and on the disease. He wanted to help other people diagnosed with cancer and in treatment, because he knew how helpless he felt going through this.” He started his foundation because it was during his treatment that he felt that things could have been better. The Foundation’s first fundraiser
was a golf tournament at TPC Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco in 2011. A huge success, attended by many of the friends he’s made on the teams he’s covered as well as his fellow camera operators, the foundation used the funds to create a new website and provide more resources for people fighting cancer. A high-school acquaintance of David’s, Lynn Hammerschmidt, who had volunteered to work on the tournament, and a former medical marketing executive, became the foundation’s President. As they worked together, it became clear to her that David’s post-treatment side effects were not being fully addressed. As she stated, “There were days when all we did was deal with his
side effects, going from one doctor to another and one facility to another. It is absolutely frustrating and shameful that he was left to deal with this on his own. It needs to be addressed - cancer survivorship –and it’s something the foundation plans to explore.”
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t one point, David turned to Lynn and said, “I know the cancer treatments have shortened my life and I’m not sure how long I will be here. I want to have an immediate impact. I don’t want to continue to fund research where we never really know where the money is going. I want to address the fear everyone has the minute they hear the words, You have cancer. Patients launch their fight in the waiting room. It’s where they wait to hear the news they have cancer. It’s where they wait for their treatment appointments. It’s where they go for follow-up to check to see if the cancer has come back. Most waiting rooms create fear. They have very few distractions and ways to ease anxiety. I want to change that environment. I want to fill the rooms with music and visual distractions and comfort, to keep people from focusing on the fear.” Lynn agrees saying, “It was a turning point for the foundation. What David sought when he was undergoing treatment was something that could offer comfort and distract him from the pain of the experience was something that could help him keep a positive attitude. He listened to music, he let go of worrying about things he couldn’t control, and he tried to plan things to look forward to. We have taken the tools he used to stay strong, positive, and help other people do the same. Cancer clinic waiting rooms can often feel sterile and cold because they are filled with medical jour-
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nals, patient brochures, and wig displays - all reminders of being sick. What we do is change the feeling in the room- we create life-affirming environments that provide comfort and ease anxiety.” Just recently, David was convinced that it was time to change the name of the foundation. While the word “Torture” sums up his experience, it is also a frightening word to many people. David was inspired one night by the words “Strike out Fear” which combines his love of baseball with his life’s mission. It has been adopted as the Foundation’s new tagline. In the future, the foundation will be called The David Benzer Cancer Foundation. What lies ahead for David is to keep doing what he loves — working as a camera operator for the Giants while keeping a wider lens on improving the lives of people fighting cancer. As David put it, “Cancer was the best thing to ever have happened to me for what it taught me – to value each and every day like there is no other. It taught me that my friends and family are the most important things in my life.” He continued saying, “It’s been three and a half years since
I’ve had cancer and life is still sometimes difficult because of the side effects of treatment. But the value of life is much stronger. It is more precious to me than before the cancer. I enjoy each and every day like there is no tomorrow. I try to keep one thing in mind, one thing my friend Dusty Baker, Manager of the Giants from 1993 to 2002, and a fellow cancer survivor told me, ‘You need to think lucky, to be lucky.’”