ABOUT ALEXANDER PANCOE

Climbing to raise awareness and make a difference.

In 2005, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and successfully operated on at Lurie Children's Hospital. 20 years later I have had no complications. In 2016, I went on a life-changing adventure to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. In the years following, I fell in love with adventure, overcoming fear, and pushing my physical and mental limits. I got this crazy idea in my head (the crazy is something the surgery didn’t change) to pursue the Explorer’s Grand Slam - a challenge that involves climbing the 7 summits and skiing to both the North and South Pole. While pursuing this dream, I raised awarenesss, shared other patients’ journeys, and raise funds for pediatric brain tumor research at Lurie Children’s - giving back to the amazing institution that saved his life years prior.

It was a wild few years filled with adventure, a near fatal climbing injury that required a blackhawk helicopter rescue, and lots of climbing! In 2019, upon summiting Everest and Denali, I became just the 15th American and one of 75 people in the world to complete the Grand Slam, raising almost $500,000 in the process for Lurie Children’s.

In 2023. while climbing Ama Dablam, a challenging climb in the Himalayan range, I became extremely hypoxic and struggled with the altitude. Several months later I was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and learned my body had been unable to make the red bloods cells necessary to acclimate at altitude. CML is a lifelong cancer and after almost two years of receiving treatment to manage it - I am going to be attempting to climb Makalu, the 5th highest mountain the world and raise $27,838 (the height if Makalu in feet) for Lurie Children’s pediatric blood cancer program. It’s going to be a huge challenge for me - climbing at altitude is plenty hard without a chronic ailment - but I look forward to rising to the challenge.