In August 2007, after retiring from the Air Force, Eric and his wife Erika made the trek to Tucson Arizona to escape the snow and cold. He quickly realized that retirement was not for him and stated working at the Pima County Superior Court, where he is currently employed as the Security Manager for the Pima County Juvenile Court Complex. In early 2017, he felt a lump on his right breast and thought it must be a mosquito bite. Of course, if it was, he would be lucky to have a mosquito bite that did not itch. Realizing the “bite” was not going away, he passed it off to a few other things, such as an ingrown hair.
The bump was not going, away and in fact was growing, so he turned to his wife Erika for her input. Having attended a breast cancer awareness event in 1998, she told Eric to get it check immediately which he did. In May of 2017, Eric was diagnosed Invasive Ductal Carcinoma commonly known as Breast Cancer. He immediately prayed for strength and to be provided with talented and compassionate medical professionals to assist in the battle that lie ahead. His prayers were answered when he began receiving treatment at the Arizona Cancer Center.
After sharing a few tears with Erika, they decided to take the fight to breast cancer. One of the first things on their agenda to fight cancer was to make some rules for the battle. It was noted that if you don’t make some rules, then cancer gets to make all the rules. The first rule was for every time they cried, they had to laugh. With their combined personalities, this was easily accomplished. Additionally, they planned on being disappointed during the process. If you plan on being disappointed from time to time, when disappointment occurs it takes the sting out of it. In this case, disappointment came in the form of delays in getting referrals for treatments.
In July of 2017, Eric had a successful partial mastectomy followed by a 6-week course of daily radiation treatments. He is currently taking medication to help prevent his cancer from reoccurring.
Even though the surgery and radiation treatments are now in the past, Eric continues to take the fight to cancer. Following his radiation therapy, Eric was totally wiped out and really wanted a craft beer. Knowing this, Erika suggested they stop by Dillinger Brewery to have a celebratory beer. While enjoying a pint of Roadrunner Red, he noticed the similarity between “pint” and “pink” thus the birth of the Pints 4 Pink Foundation. The mission of the foundation is two-fold; first and foremost, raise funds for breast cancer research. Secondly, the foundation strives to raise awareness that 1 in 833 men will be affected by breast cancer and the huge benefit associated with early detection. This mission is accomplished by developing partnerships with breweries across the county who host events and donate a percentage of their craft beer sales during the month of October. Currently the Pints 4 Pink Foundation is active in six states with more being added annually.