The fact that he’s alive is amazing, but the way he’s teaching others to live with passion is what’s truly amazing.

Sean Swarner is a three-time cancer survivor, a medical marvel, adventurer and an inspiration to anyone who hears him speak.

At the age of 13, Sean was diagnosed with Stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and  doctors gave him 3 months to live. But he survived.

Then, at age 16, during a check-up for the first cancer, doctors discovered a golf ball-sized tumor on Sean’s right lung. In one day, the tumor was discovered, biopsies, removed and he was started on chemo. Once again, the prognosis was grim — he was given two weeks to live and given last rites.

But through it all, Sean said he never got angry.

“You can be angry at the world or you can accept that everyone in life goes through hardships. I chose to see life through a different set of eyes,” Sean says.

For him, that means giving back and doing something meaningful with his life. Sean says his goal is to show people that the human body and the human spirit are capable of extraordinary things.

That’s why he worked so hard to become the first cancer survivor to climb to the top of Mount Everest — with only one lung.

Through his charity, Cancer Climber Association, Sean helps other survivors reach heights they never dreamed possible.

Sean tells us about plans for his yearly trip to the top of Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro with other survivors and about next year’s big plans — a trip to the South Pole with visually impaired adventurer Alan Lock.

Why does it do it all? To give people hope. Sean says people can live days without food or water.

“But no human alive can survive 30 seconds without hope. Without hope, we have nothing.”

Find out why Sean says his work will never be done and how you can help give others hope, too. 

Click on the Related Media tab above to listen to our previous interviews with Sean.