Dane Santos was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma disease, a strong cancer. He completed the first batch of chemotherapy and that cancer returned, but Dane has proven he is stronger and can overcome it again. 

Santos’ attitude is, ‘you can’t hurt me’. He has continued to do motivating workouts and do what he says is work so hard that the cancer no longer wants to live inside his body. He is doing these workouts alongside doing the most intense chemotherapy known to man. 

In his first round of chemotherapy, he started doing 20 burpees a day during his journey of battle cancers. Once he found out the cancer came back, he decided to do what he has done his whole life and that’s fight back.

“I went to CrossFit 25 days in a row, I actually even had a second degree burn under my armpits from the radiation. Still pumped it out, still did pull ups, still did what I needed to do,” Santos said. “I was keeping that mindset where burpees weren’t good enough, I’m going to push hard and I’m going to do this.”

Santos mentioned that he was not on this journey alone. He said he has plenty of friends that joined him along the way. The one friend that stood out to him the most was his best friend, Bryan Kelly.

“He was scared, I was scared but the only way that we knew how to get through it was together. That’s what was on our mind, even to the point where I almost came home,” Kelly said.

Santos mentioned that Kelly was one of the first people he called when he found out the cancer had relapsed. 

“He doubled down and it was one of those things where he could have tucked his tail and ran, but he didn’t. He reached out everyday,” Santos said.

According to Santos, Kelly would send him funny videos to get him to laugh and be cheerful during this trying trial. He said those little things and Kelly working out twice as hard, is what really helped him everyday knowing he wasn’t in this alone. 

“That was so motivating for me, when I saw him double down, I was gonna do the exact same thing. Not only with my friendship but with how I was going to attack this (The cancer),” Santos said.

According to Santos, he has finished his last chemotherapy treatment and has to complete a 14 day quarantine just for COVID-19 precautions, he will be able to go home and live what’s close to a regular life.