Charles Porter has a story that is filled with love and wisdom. He is a poet, author, actor, trainer, husband, father and so much more. He has lived several lives in his 40 some years, hopefully with many more to come.
Charles Frederick Porter II was born in Oxford England to an English mother and an African American father from Annapolis, Md. Charles received a full athletic scholarship to Duke University. His football coach had a mantra: Never Quit.
But a back injury sidelined Charles’ dreams of professional football. So he headed for Hollywood where he was off to a successful career, appearing on popular shows and landing some significant advertising campaigns.
Charles during his Hollywood days.
Then, in 2010, he was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It was a bump in the road no one could have imagined. His old football mantra, #NeverQuit, became his mantra for life.
Bump In The Road:
Charles Frederick Porter
And life took a very different turn. He wrote poetry and published several books. He married and had two daughters.
Then the cancer came back again. Immunotherapy is helping.
My podcast with Charles is wide ranging. And it includes one of his poems:
From Choose Your Path: The Journey to Your Destination lays within you.
Choose Your Path by Charles Frederick Porter
I am thankful for the day
Simply because I am
Tattered clothes, tangled hair, nodding out
It could be so much worse
A still around the canals shows two sides of the same coin
I should not forget this
We have all been through so much
Oh you’d be rare to escape life’s pain
But pain can fuel life
One day there will be no more
So I must remain thankful
Notes: Walking through life at one point thinking that there was no end. When I was diagnosed with stage four Cancer my compassion and empathy intensified. That is when I truly started to love myself and then I truly started to believe myself. One I knew nothing is forever, I truly started living. Grateful to be alive.
Charles and CancerRoadTrip
Charles was slated to be one of our Travelers for CancerRoadTrip before Covid put everything on hold. Here is a video featuring Charles and that project:
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