Join us on an incredible journey with Chuck Keels, a man whose life took a miraculous turn when faced with a daunting cancer diagnosis. Discover how Chuck’s encounter with Jesus brought him healing and renewed purpose, transforming his trials into a powerful testimony. Hear how he turned personal tragedy into a mission to inspire, uplift, and coach others battling cancer and their families with unwavering hope and faith.
Welcome, everyone, to The Calling’s radio show to all the dreamers. I’m your radio host, Dr. Chrysandra Brunson, and it is such an honor to be with all of you today. You know, at The Calling, we have realized that so many people are afraid to go after the dreams and calling on their lives because they are afraid to fail. And that is just plain wrong because if God is giving you a dream and you’re not living it out, you are wasting it. And we do not want you to die with regret. That’s why at The Calling, we love to inspire, empower, and equip people after Jesus’ calling on their lives to reap the best kind of eternal legacy possible to have immediate impact on themselves and their families. We love to do this through so many different avenues, through custom tools and programs, workshops, seminars. and even global conferences, but especially through this radio show where we bring on world-renowned guests to go after their God-given dreams. And today is no exception. You guys, we’re in for such a treat. I have the special opportunity to share that we have Zach Ferry on as our special celebrity co-host on for the show. Zach, we’re so honored to have you. in with us.
ZAK FERRY :
The one and o right now.
CHRYSANDRA :
Uh I love a li about Italy. I love the p the food. It’s pretty am Oh, we we love that chuck been such, this has been as we were sharing right and it’s just, it is a dr just share with our list leadership roles that you
CHUCK KEELS :
well um we’ll go back into how i started all of this but right now i’m i’m the founder i’m the founder of living hope cancer foundation living copay living hope cancer foundation can be found at getupandlive.org get up and live with something that god downloaded to me 10 years ago which was working with cancer patients to motivate them, get them moving, get them to just get up and take a shower, get out of bed and feel like a human again. And what I didn’t know was God had a much bigger plan because get up and live became not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. And if you can get up and live physically, physically, mentally and spiritually, your life will change if you can balance that out. So Living Hope Cancer Foundation is really my baby and it’s what I work the hardest on. And the reason why is because I found a niche that I don’t know of a lot of other people doing, and that’s a cancer foundation loving on cancer patients, their families, their caregivers, I’m giving them a personal fight plan. This isn’t your medical plan. The doctors that’s between you and your doctors and your medical, but your fight plan, when you get home and you’re freaking out and the devil’s just cranking on you because you just heard the word cancer. And all of a sudden somebody says, you know, call Chuck or they find me through a Google search and we get on the phone. And by the end of the phone call, which are all, I coach, I cancer coach for free. by the end of the phone call to take a cancer patient and their family that are freaking out and have smiles on their faces and feel hope and feel love and get to say a little prayer with them at the end of that call. It’s really a gift from God. It’s a gift from God.
CHRYSANDRA :
I think, Chuck, everyone in the world, though, needs these services, and we know of and we need this in our lives for either a loved one that we know or that one person removed from us just with all the effects of cancer. So, Chuck, how did this story all begin for you in starting the Cancer Foundation?
CHUCK KEELS :
Absolutely. And I’ll throw in a little blip for myself also. I’m a published author.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yeah.
CHUCK KEELS :
And I’m a public speaker. And I’ve done interviews with with TED Talks and with the 700 Club. So I’ve had some fun with whatever, whatever doors God opens through this journey through this journey.
CHRYSANDRA :
Well, I would say, Chuck, you are world-renowned, truly. I’ve heard about you from several different sources, and a lot of people have tried to connect us throughout the years. And you just being abroad even in Europe is a testament to how the Lord has used you and that he’s bringing this message out to change people’s lives and nations around the world. So tell us the pain of this journey. Absolutely.
CHUCK KEELS :
So this is the part where I really need everybody to like just turn up the radio, scoot their butt up closer to the chair and listen because what I’m about to tell you, I’m an old farm boy from Ohio, okay? What I’m about to tell you and what happened to me and why I do what I do now is nothing short of mind-blowing miraculous, okay? In 2015, I was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer that I let go for way too long. The prostate cancer goes to where it’s fed and ended up in my lymph nodes in my bones. And the first time I went in saying something’s wrong, I’m falling apart, and the test came back, they did a nuclear bone scan, and the doctor said, I can’t believe you just walked back in here. You have cancer in 90% of the bones in your body. Wow. He said, the fact you’re standing here in front of me is miraculous within itself. I’m sorry, but at this point, there’s nothing the medical industry can do because it’s so saturated. There’s nothing that’s going to catch up with this. We’re sorry. You might have two to three months to live. Go home and get your affairs and orders and be at peace with your family.
CHRYSANDRA :
Oh, my gosh. I think we’re all just… sitting in that moment of were you just, I mean, w you plan, you know, um, y graduations, you plan wed things.
CHUCK KEELS :
A cancer diagnos ever plans. And even tho of a coworker, a neighbo that went through it, there’s no way to prepare for it. So my head was spinning. I had to go home sitting on the couch with tears in my eyes, trying to figure out what do you do with this? And then my two boys came in on the school bus and I had to sit them on the couch and tell them. We knew it was cancer, but when the results all came back, I said, the doctors said, your dad’s very, very sick and I’ve got two to three months to live. And the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was emotional. It was nothing short of a bad dream. A lot of hugs, a lot of tears. And then the boys… uh went to their rooms um i was just kind of thinking through what do you do with this um and i get a knock on the door and one of my boys says hey dad there’s uh two ladies at the front door and i said uh let them in let them in and they and they come in and they said we’re from hospice of the valley the doctors sent the doctors gave us your records and and we we we planned on coming to see you tonight. And I said, well, what’s the plan? And they said, well, what are you thinking? I said, I think I need to get my boys back to Ohio as fast as possible because I’m melting away. And after I’m gone, my family can take care of my two boys. One was in junior high, one was in high school. And they said, okay. So they write prescriptions for pain medication, liquid morphine. They wrote a prescription for a hospital bed to be downstairs in my house. Because my bones were in such pain, I couldn’t climb up my flight of stairs. So they wrote a prescription for a hospital bed to be put in my living room. And so they were just trying to get me numbed up and comfortable. So the plan was of seven days later to get on an airplane with my two boys and head to Ohio where my family was going to take care of them that week. we gave away everything we own how often are you told you’ve got two to three months to live you plan to move across the country you don’t move all of that stuff that you’ve worked your tail off your entire life to have that brown leather furniture big screen tvs all that material stuff and all these idols of this world you don’t you don’t move that stuff across the country and i told all my friends that saw my posts on social media that it was cancer and that i was going back to ohio as soon as possible they wanted to come by for a hug they’re like can we come and see you i said bring a truck or a u-haul take anything you want because it’s when you when you get a diagnosis of stage four cancer all of that material stuff that i had in that house all of a sudden became absolutely nothing to me nothing So I watched all of my stuff drive away that week, like kind of happy, like I’m glad it’s got a home to go to. So we’re supposed to fly out of Phoenix Sky Harbor into Columbus, Ohio on Sunday. And Saturday, my boys go, hey, Dad, where are we going to sleep tonight? You gave away our beds. And I said, I didn’t even think about that. And so we stayed at a resort down in the middle of Phoenix that was close to the airport, which we would just go over the next morning and hop on a flight. Well, the next morning I get up to go to the bathroom down the hall in this resort and something pops and I hit the floor face down. and the next thing i know i can’t move i’m in pain uh the hotel security shows up fire department shows up to get me on a gurney every movement was agonizing i could feel it it was it was unbelievable they got me on a gurney in an ambulance one mile away to john c lincoln hospital and at john c lincoln hospital they brought in a a cancer doctor a house doctor and two spinal surgeons and i said what’s up with these spinal surgeons and they said you just suffered a double compression fracture your back just broke in two places oh my gosh wow Yeah. So they start running scans, tests, you name it. Every time they move me, it was agonizing. I’m going through this. And I was about 24 hours of scans and tests when all four of these these two spinal surgeons, the house doctor and the cancer doctor come into my room when they’re doing their rounds. And they said, well, we’re looking at all your stuff and we want to fight this. And I said, on the other side of town, I was told I had two to three months to live. Well, we were looking at this and we think, you know, if we do two surgeries tomorrow, emergency surgeries, that we will actually be able to go in and even put a port in and the next day even start chemo and kill some of this cancer. And that’s really your only chance. And I said, let’s go. You know, a fight’s a fight, man. Let’s go. Yeah. So the next day they wheeled me into two surgeries, back-to-back surgeries. And I wake up two hours later in the recovery room. I’m just wanting to go upstairs and see my boys. My two brothers were in town, one from Maine, one from Ohio. I’m laying there and I look up and there’s somebody standing there and I’m thinking it’s a doctor or it’s a nurse. He reaches out his hand and touches my shoulder. And in my head, I hear, you’re in the presence of Jesus.
CHRYSANDRA :
Oh my gosh.
CHUCK KEELS :
I look up again and he’s gone. So whoever was standing there, two to three seconds in my life was gone. And in my head, it said I was in the presence of Jesus. And I’m completely flipping out and questioning all of this because I actually hadn’t been to church in over 15 years. I was not your most likely candidate for Jesus to be showing up at.
CHRYSANDRA :
and and so to make a long story short we’re gonna pause right there because we need to go on a short break but we cannot wait to hear what happens um of your story in that moment of seeing jesus and you guys we are listening to all the dreamers radio show we have chuck peels with us and we’ll be right back Hi guys, this is Chrysandra Brunson, host of To All The Dreamers. I am so happy to introduce personal training, nutritional guidance, and behavioral change coaching. Healthy, happy, and heavenly for your wellness, spirit, soul, and body. Contact Mimi Kroger at healthyhappyandheavenly.com.
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CHRYSANDRA :
we are back thank you for listening to all the dreamers radio show you guys we have such a treat having our incredible guest coming in from italy um sharing his amazing story we have a celebrity co-host with us zach ferry on with us and chuck you were just sharing with us before break that you were encountering you had just encountered jesus and you weren’t the most likely candidate to have that visitation
ZAK FERRY :
Yeah, what an edge to be sitting on here, Chuck.
CHUCK KEELS :
And you guys already know the story’s got a happy ending because I’m still sitting here with you 10 years later, right?
CHRYSANDRA :
Right, right. Yeah. Back to that moment. What happened, Chuck?
CHUCK KEELS :
So basically totally freaking out and questioning everything that I saw and everything that I heard. And that they rolled me back up to the to the room where I was a hospital room. And the nurses came in and said, you’re overdue for your medication because of the surgery. And I was out of the room and they said, here’s your medication. Here’s your steroids for shrinking the tumors. Here’s your bone strengtheners. They’re giving me all these pills I’m taking. And they said your pain meds are as needed. So on a scale from 1 to 10, how bad is your pain right now? I’m questioning this because I’m analyzing my body. I finally hit the button on the bed to sit up and I look at them and I say, I don’t feel any pain. And they said, they said, order something because this morning you were on liquid morphine. Order something. And I said, I don’t even take aspirin. I don’t want to take a drug if I don’t need it. They said, here’s the nurse button. Hit it as soon as the call button hit it. As soon as you feel something, we don’t want it to get out of control. Ten years ago, on May 26, 2015, the day that I had all this surgery, this visitor in my head saying it was Jesus, the pain stopped that day, and I haven’t been through any pain since that.
CHRYSANDRA :
Wow.
CHUCK KEELS :
and you know this is i’m dealing with the medical industry i’m dealing with they’re like wait a minute you know order something we don’t want to get out of control right the pain the pain stopped um and the doctor said i can’t explain this and i remember as a young man um i was brought up in in a catholic family i was brought up as a catholic family i remember hearing a teacher or a priest or somebody said anytime a doctor says they can’t explain that it’s called a miracle so that’s what popped into my head was did i just ha did i just go through a miracle so basically there’s a lot of detail in this and there’s a couple books that explain the detail on that you can get on my website but what happened to shorten this a little bit was i did start through chemotherapy because i didn’t know anything i didn’t know what i know about um nutrition, health, faith, like I do now, started through chemotherapy. They did three months of chemo, and then they did a round of scans. They wanted to see if it’s getting better, getting worse, change your treatment plan, what we should do. And I got that done at a medical facility on Tuesday. On Thursday, I went in to see my cancer doctor, the same doctor that I met through this whole journey of going through that hospital. And I walk into her office, and she’s just smiling from ear to ear. Dr. Ahmad is from Karachi, Pakistan. Just a little fire plug, a good cancer doctor, aggressive. And she’s smiling from ear to ear, and I said, what’s going on? She said, I’ve never seen anything like this before, and I’ve studied cancer all over the world. She says, Chuck, she says, I had three other doctors look at your scans. We can’t find any cancer in any of your scans.
CHRYSANDRA :
What?
CHUCK KEELS :
So my head, my head is spinning, spinning. And she goes, Chuck, there’s something else. Your bones are so clean. We can’t tell they were ever broken.
CHRYSANDRA :
Chuck, what was going through your mind when all of this was, when she was sharing this?
CHUCK KEELS :
Tears started rolling. I was confused. I was I was just my head was spinning. I remember giving her a hug. I remember walking out of the cancer center. I remember walking towards my car and all I could think of was Lazarus. Get up and walk. whoa i was the dead guy i was the dead guy i was the guy they told me i had no you know two months to live and now you’re telling me the cancer’s gone and my bones are so clean i was i was uh it was it was a unbelievable experience and the thing about it was i’ve always been a big mouth farm boy from ohio and i tell everybody everywhere i go so it didn’t matter if i was at a farmer’s market breakfast. Somebody’s going to hear this story. And what I realized through seeing the tears and the hugs and people needing to hear this, I realized that God wanted me to tell my story and bring people to him.
CHRYSANDRA :
That is so powerful, Chuck. Wow. It’s like you had a question for him.
ZAK FERRY :
Well, no, I had a thought. I was just curious on You brought up your young boys at the time. What was that impact on their lives?
CHUCK KEELS :
Well, you know, being young boys, their brains are still developing and stuff. One of them went through a little harder time. I’m not sure if I believe in Jesus. And you know how it is also as a parent. You want the kids to do specific things. but they’ve got to take their own path to really be impacted. They’ve got to bump their head into the walls. So the older of the two became a strong Christian and would tell people my story and would wear his necklace cross out of his shirt. The younger one took a little bit of time and both of them now are strong, are strong believers in their own time, in their own timing. Yeah.
ZAK FERRY :
Yeah. Being a young boy, you know, here in, My dad’s going to be the party club. I said, no, that’s not the end of the story.
CHUCK KEELS :
Yeah, you can imagine. Later in life, I met a girl through being a cancer coach. Ended up falling in love and getting married. And it was a four-year beautiful marriage. Spoke in Littleton, Colorado three times. Spoke in churches all over the country. Hundreds of churches. And Hannah, through her journey, I met her with stage four cancer. She ended up passing away. She passed away in my arms. And so not only did I have this amazing miracle, I also experienced what happens when God’s plan for you is to come home. And at that time, I never thought earlier to what my boys had experienced with me. And when I thought I’m going to go to a church that has a grieving meeting, I need to be around people that have experienced this. And I go, I never thought of asking my boys to go with me. They needed it from back when they went through my journey because they thought their dad was leaving them. We went to some classes together to just grow closer and just feel love and feel love from other people. Quite the journey. And then basically… Go ahead, Cassandra.
CHRYSANDRA :
Oh, no. I think that just on this journey of… You know, our following, our calling, Jesus gives us a purpose to fight for, and it’s beyond ourselves. And Chuck, we’re coming up towards the end of our show, and we have so much more. We want you back sooner than later, but we do have a few questions left for you. First one is just in this journey of going after this newfound purpose of helping families and just families. humanity with this whole how to go through it? How through the different tria of now having this founda about one of those giants
CHUCK KEELS :
Well, I mean, there’s giants every day because I mean, in the cancer industry, you know, there’s a lot of ups and downs. And in my heart, my hardest thing is, of course, any any losing anybody at all. But a couple of weeks ago, lost a 22 year old girl to cancer and just was am like family with her family. And and as soon as I get back to the States, we’ll go visit them. But there’s a lot. But I would have to say the biggest thing is the closer I get to Christ. The stronger I am, the closer I get to Christ, the better I am at everything I do. If it’s a cancer coach, a dad, whatever it might be that comes at me, because we’re all human, right? You can walk with Jesus Christ, but you’re still going to experience life journey. And so what I realized was the closer I get to Jesus Christ, the stronger I get to Jesus Christ, the better I am at facing any one of these challenges that come my way.
CHRYSANDRA :
That’s powerful, powerful. And Chuck, we just know that so many people are tuning in and they’re afraid to go after what Jesus is calling them to. What would you tell them? Just the tools and advice to be able to move forward and trust Jesus and that unique purpose.
CHUCK KEELS :
Well, a lot of people, you know, don’t even know really how to pray, you know, and praying to me is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And it could be watering your plants in the backyard and just saying, hey, I’ve got some hard stuff going on today. Just show up, man. What should I do? Give me some direction. So basically, with anybody’s journey, it’s taking that first step, which is the hardest. It’s you growing closer to Christ, because like I said, when that happens, other things start to happen also. And so basically, you’re calling. I’ve got some news for you guys out there. And Cassandra, you guys know this. Yeah. When God starts poking you on the shoulder and telling you, you got up, he’s got a purpose for you. He’s not going to stop. He’s not going to, he’s not, he’s not going to give up. So, so it’ll drive you crazy and you’ll dream about it and you’ll live through it. And you’ll push and say, 10 years ago, I was getting tapped on the, he’s not going to quit. And that’s the same thing that happened with me was, was my, my cancer coaching, my writing a book. I started getting a tap on my shoulder to write a book. And I go, God, I’m not even the best reader. And you want me to be a published author?
ZAK FERRY :
come on, come on.
CHUCK KEELS :
And now out there to help people stuff in life journey.
CHRYSANDRA :
Th we want to know what is t and how can people get in Hope Cancer Foundation.
CHUCK KEELS :
Go to getupandlive.org, getupandlive.org, just like it sounds. It’s right there.
CHRYSANDRA :
I love it. For people that are just listening, you can’t see the visuals, you might be able to see them on our socials, but you have it tattooed on your arm. Right.
ZAK FERRY :
love it.
CHUCK KEELS :
Get up, get up a some time to look around a ton of stuff on there. T videos of what to do afte but if you don’t have can trauma in your life and All these videos pertain to trauma in your life, free videos. So Cancer Roadmap Project. There’s an eight-day Bible plan on there from a great friend of mine who’s actually survived stage four cancer as well. Her husband’s been a pastor for 22 years. She wrote a Bible plan for me, a healing plan where you can heal from anything from the Bible. Physical stuff, mental stuff, everything from the Bible. So there’s an eight-day Bible plan on there. Go on there and take your time and look around on there. Give that sight to your friends and people that you love. And so there’s a lot of ways you can get involved in a lot of it right now with any type of foundation is awareness. If you have something amazing you’re doing and nobody knows about it, what good is it? So I encourage people to share my foundation with everybody they love because they go on there. People think it’s a cancer site and they go on there and they end up with a smile and they call me and they’re like, dude, I cannot believe your site. It’s so positive. And it’s a cancer site. So that’s what that’s what Living Hope Cancer Foundation does.
CHRYSANDRA :
And tell us the website and your personal information, Chuck, for everyone to be able to tune in and get connected to support you, all of you, and to be able to be a part of this movement.
CHUCK KEELS :
So I started a lot of the social media stuff. So if you just go on Facebook and type in Chuck Keels, TikTok, 40,000 followers on TikTok, following this platform. You know, just turning these platforms that a lot of people are kind of negative about social media into our churches, into my church. So Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, under Chuck Keels, K-E-E-L-S. Getupandlive.org is the website. Go on there and look around. At the bottom of the website is all my contact information. If somebody you love or you have been diagnosed with cancer, I definitely want to hear about you. And I do all my consultations, all my coaching for free.
CHRYSANDRA :
What? Oh, for free. What a gift. I know. I know. Well, Chuck, we are so honored to have you. Can’t wait to have you back. And if you guys challenge everyone, please get in touch with Chuck today. You’re listening to this for such a time as this. And just as he said, Jesus is going to keep tapping you on the shoulder. He won’t. He’s relentless. He’s so kind in that manner. And it’s better to be quick in obedience. Dive into that calling right away. Till next time, dreamer. Keep dreaming big.
