BREAST CANCER WARRIOR
Still Cruisin’ Sea and Sky BY KYMBERLY TAYLOR Super Saber, Dagger, Starfighter, Thunder Chief, Voodoo— these are the names of fighting jets familiar to Michael E. “Mike” Ashford, a nuclear war plane Air Force veteran, former commercial airline pilot, long-time Annapolitan and owner of the renowned McGarvey’s Saloon & Oyster Bar in Annapolis. Ashford knows Annapolis and its boat-minded crowd well. He once owned The Annapolitan magazine with friend, Walter Cronkite—he and the late legendary anchorman were a familiar sight sailing the Chesapeake Bay (and sometimes misbehaving gallantly on the deck of the Annapolis Yacht Club, according to sources close to AYC).
Ashford, now that cancer is behind him, reflects on his experiences in his signature candid style: “Is your magazine’s aim to encourage us all to eat healthy and stuff like that? Do you think enough people want to do this?” he asked Looking Good incredulously. “Well, I speak on this sometimes to cancer survivors’ groups. ... I tell them, ‘If you have cancer, eat whatever you want to eat!’ The thing you want to keep running right is this thing up here, this head, this computer ... you don’t want to give up Fourth of July hotdogs for God’s sake, and BLTs, and burgers!”
HEALTH
Ashford was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2008, a verdict rare for men. According to the American Cancer
Society, the lifetime risk for breast cancer in men is about one in 1,000. In contrast, about one in eight women (12 percent) in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime.
Mike Ashford surveys the Annapolis marina where he docks Old Sport. 28 L O O K I N G G O O D M A G A Z I N E . C O M