True Survivor Defies Odds; Climbs Mountains With One Lung

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Sean Swarner knows what it's like to be on top of the world. But his climb to the highest point on earth was sometimes filled with painful lows.

As a teenager, he battled cancer twice.

"First time was when I was 13. I had Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which is basically cancer of the lymph system from head to toe. As an 8th grader, they gave me 3 months to live," Sean recalled.

He beat cancer that time, only to face a different, more aggressive form of the disease three years later.

"As a 16-year-old they gave me 14 days to live. I was diagnosed with something called Askin's Sarcoma. For me it affected my right lung," he said.

Sean says he was read his last rites and spent a year in a coma.

But ultimately, he shocked doctors when he survived with just one functioning lung.

"It's tough. I tell people all the time, 'You take a breath I have to breathe twice to make up for the fact that you have two lungs and I only have one.' But a lot of it is right here," he said pointing at his head. "A lot of it's mental. What I do before I even begin something, I picture myself successful. I picture myself at the end and work backwards."

After improving his health, Sean says he pictured himself at the top of Mount Everest.

And in 2002, more than a decade after his first diagnosis, he made it to the summit.

"Take every emotion you've ever had and put it into a tiny bouncy ball and then explode it all at once," he said of what he felt when reaching the top. "I climbed Everest to give people hope. I wanted to be the first cancer survivor to climb the highest point in the world and use Mount Everest as a 29,000 foot platform to give people hope."

But Everest isn't enough.

Sean has completed what's called the "7 Summits", meaning he's climbed the highest mountains on all 7 continents.

He's also an Ironman World Championship Finisher.

Earlier this month, he ran the Wings for Life World Run here in South Florida, to help raise money for victims of spinal cord injuries, and give hope to those in the fight of their lives.

"I went through some really tough times but understanding that tough times pass and things will get better. Holding on to that hope and faith that things are going to get better," he said. "The human body can live for roughly 30 days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about 3 days without water. But no human alive can live without more than 30 seconds without hope. I think that's what we're doing. We're giving people hope."

Sean has written a series of e-books to help give other a nice dose of inspiration.

The first is called 'Everest: Being Unstoppable.'

Visit SeanSwarner.com for more details.

He's also taking a group of "Cancer Climbers" up Mt. Kilimanjaro this summer.