STINSON BEACH, Calif. – Jamie Schou was the guy everybody wanted to be around.
“He was larger than life,” says his sister Katie, referring to Jamie’s adventurous, warm
personality and his 6-foot-8 frame. “He made everyone feel so taken care of and loved.”
In July 2014, at just 35 years old, Jamie passed away from a two-year battle with synovial sarcoma, a vibrant life cut tragically short. Through it all, though, he fought with a smile on his face, uplifting those he loved, embracing every moment to its fullest. It’s who Jamie always was – “the leader of the pack,” as Katie referred to him.
And for nearly his entire adult life and throughout his cancer battle, Jamie’s adventures began
in the same place. His truck.
“I have so many memories of Jamie showing up with his truck, piling in a bunch of our friends and heading to the hill or the trail,” Katie says, weaving Jamie’s 2006 Nissan TITAN down California’s coastal Shoreline Highway, just a few miles from where the Schous grew up. “Every time I or anyone saw this truck roll up, you knew – Jamie's here! And it’d make you so excited.”
After Jamie passed away, it was a no-brainer for the Schou family to keep Jamie’s TITAN. But when the truck needed a few expensive repairs last summer, the Schous were faced with a gut-wrenching decision. Should they pay for the repairs of the aging truck or find a replacement?
“That was a really tough conversation,” Katie says, “because this truck still holds so much
sentimental value.”
Jamie and his TITAN – an unmistakable pair
Growing up in Mill Valley, Calif., Jamie Schou and his three younger sisters – Katie, Caroline and Margot – spent summers in the mountains near Lake Tahoe, just a short drive away. Nature was a playground for the Schous and their friends, and Jamie was the leader of the pack.
When he graduated from Cornell University, Jamie moved home to Truckee, Calif., a mountain town near Lake Tahoe, to be close to family and become a realtor, a profession that perfectly matched his neighborly personality.
And of course, to live in the outdoors – where Jamie could fully, wholeheartedly, be Jamie.
Shortly after moving, Jamie – a towering former Cornell rower – purchased his first new vehicle, a 2006 Nissan TITAN.
“I just remember Jamie driving up in this thing and it looked so sharp and shiny and big –
just like Jamie,” Katie recalled. “He was so proud. Had a big ol’ smile.”
Right off the lot, Jamie knew he had found his outdoor adventure partner in crime. Jamie and his truck became a recognizable pair, a dynamic duo synonymous with good times and community.
And how he used his TITAN was further proof of the type of person he was.
“Any time anybody needed help with a move – help with anything
– Jamie would show up with his truck. He was always there to help at the drop of a hat,” Katie said. “Jamie and his truck were there not only for adventures, but life changes. The truck was always part of it.”
At home in northern California, Jamie was truly living his best life, flourishing as a realtor, embracing the outdoors, and, most importantly, simply being around those he loved.
And then in March 2012, he felt a lump in his back.
Fighting cancer with outdoor adventure
Just 33 years old, Jamie Schou was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that tends to arise near large joints in young adults.
“He was an outdoorsy, super healthy, super fit, young guy – I had never met or heard of anyone that age getting cancer,” Caroline said. “So there was a huge shock of it all, but also, ‘What do we do now?’”
Added Katie: “It was really scary. We had
no idea what to think.”
Jamie immediately went into treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, spending days at a time in the hospital, receiving one painful treatment after another as doctors tried to halt the tumor growth.
As his loved ones attempted to process what was happening, “We really kind of followed his lead,” Caroline said, “and his lead was, ‘I’m going to beat this.’”
With his TITAN as his adventure mobile, Jamie pursued a list of challenging outdoor activities to combat his cancer battle. He climbed Half Dome in Yosemite Park, he
went skydiving, he skied Mt. Lassen, among other impressive feats – undertakings that most healthy people would struggle to complete, let alone someone between intensive chemotherapy treatments.
But as the tumors spread and his fight became even fiercer, there was no one he could talk to that would understand.
Building a community of young cancer fighters
“He felt a real void between these two worlds,” Katie recalled. “There was his life, his regular life, and then there was this cancer battle. His friends, his community, couldn’t really understand what he was up against. And at the same time, he didn’t meet anybody his age who was going through something similar.”
And thus, the idea of The Send It Foundation began. Jamie wanted to find ways to fund outdoor adventure trips – skiing, mountain biking, hiking, surfing, among others – to provide young cancer fighters like him the opportunity to form a community of their own and heal, with each other, in the comfort that only the outdoors can provide.
An opportunity to heal, or at least attempt to heal, in the best way Jamie knew how.
“It became what he was fighting for,” Katie said. “He was committed to surviving so that he could see this thing through, because he knew that there were so many people that could benefit from this.”
For Katie, Caroline and Margot, it was an opportunity to rally around their brother – in the midst of the pain, confusion, anger and heartbreak – to create something beautiful and lasting, together.
“I remember brainstorming with Jamie about what Send It would be, who would come, what it would look like, where we would go,” Katie said. “Being a part of the initial idea was really exciting, and it brought Jamie so much energy.”
In early 2014, during the final months of his two-year fight – with the love and support of his family and friends – Jamie Schou officially founded The Send It Foundation.
The Send It Foundation – five years (and counting) of life-changing friendship
It is Friday, May 10, 2019, in Stinson Beach, Calif., and a group of seven new friends are helping load Jamie’s truck – the “Send It TITAN” – full of mountain bikes, surfboards and new memories.
“Here we are, five years later, in Jamie’s same truck, going on these same kind of adventures,” Katie says. “This truck is still so much of Jamie.”
“Jamie’s Jams,” a collection of his six favorite CD mixes, lay in the center console, while his favorite band, Kings of Leon, plays in the background. Nearby sit his business cards, and his loose change rattles in the cup holders.
The leather steering wheel is worn from his hands, and the odometer reads just over 200,000 miles.
These seven people arrived a few days earlier from all over North America and from all walks of life – one, a 34-year-old mother of four, another a 34-year-old government worker, another a 23-year-old fast food manager – but they share one powerful bond.
They are all young cancer survivors, and they’re all here at the Send It Surf & Ride program because of the vision of Jamie Schou.
After another action packed day of mountain biking and surfing, the group returns to the Send It house – an Airbnb where participants share rooms, meals and stories – to wind down. It’s a safe place to talk freely with others who can relate – a luxury so many young cancer fighters yearn for.
“Nothing you say here surprises anybody,” says Alexandra Fine, a 31-year-old Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor. “You can just be open and honest and be yourself, and I think that’s important for everybody.”
Jacintha Gurash, a 38-year-old mother from St. Albert, Canada, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 – just months after her 2-year-old son had been diagnosed with two rare genetic diseases of his own.
For Jacintha, Send It was an opportunity to unwind with others who understand.
“This week was the first time I can remember showering without getting interrupted in at least two-and-a-half years,” she says with a laugh.
Laughter – it’s not something often heard or enjoyed by cancer patients. But here, it is
embraced.
“Your friends and family who haven’t gone through cancer might laugh, but it’s always a little awkward and nobody’s quite sure where the line is,” Jacintha says, “and that can be really hard.
“I have not laughed this hard in a long time.”
It is certainly not easy to create an environment that – within 24 hours – seven strangers refer to each other as family.
Katie, Caroline and the Send It team – filled completely with volunteers who have personal connections to Jamie, the Schous and their story – have nearly perfected it. Caroline (front) grabs a photo with the Send It Surf & Ride group on the final night of the program.
“When you bring people together who’ve gone through the same thing, you don’t have to dance around these things,” Katie said. “You can just talk about them honestly – or you can not talk about them – but you understand. You know what’s gone on. You’re all on the same time, just feeling like you can be fully you.”
‘That’s where I feel Jamie’
Between deep conversations, participants swap stories about their experiences the past few days.
Thinking back to her day surfing, Jacintha recalls a moment with fellow participant Jay Carter
– a 34-year-old chronic myeloid leukemia survivor from Dallas – who had been working diligently all morning to catch his first big wave.
“Jay’s board rode down the face of that wave and his face just lit up,” she says, her own face lighting up thinking about it. “I don’t think you can smile any bigger without actually just cracking your face open. Not only did he ride the high of that for the rest of the day, but I rode the high of watching it for the rest of the day.”
Juliette Kern, a 37 year-old senior high school administrator from New Zealand now living in Washington, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer – the most aggressive form of breast cancer – in 2016.
During this Send It trip, Juliette – now cancer free – tried mountain biking for the first time.
“That was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life,” she beamed, recalling the feeling of
cruising down the mountain, wind flowing through her hair.
It is moments and memories like these – experienced frequently by the 150 people who have attended a Send It program over the last five years – that will carry on well past the participants’ return home.
And it’s where Jamie is truly felt.
“One of the deepest, most meaningful feelings that is consistent throughout this is seeing the joy and the transformation in each person as they experience something new outside,” Katie said. “There’s a healing we have gotten from doing this, but sharing those feelings in those experiences? There’s nothing better.
“That’s where I feel Jamie, because it was all those feelings that gave him strength, courage and joy, and that feeling of being alive and seeing it happen. Everybody who comes and has these experiences, that’s where he is present. And that’s what this is all about.”
A forever legacy
With the final group of participants having departed on this beautiful California spring Saturday, Katie Schou sits in the Send It house backyard, reflecting on the past few days, and the years that have gone by since her brother Jamie passed away in July 2014.
The Send It TITAN, and the bed of memories it holds, is just a few yards away.
Since 2015, The Send It Foundation has completed 31 programs and served 150 cancer fighters.
“I honestly think that Jamie would be so proud – so proud of Caroline, and so proud of me,” Katie says, the emotions of it all beginning to show. “I know he would give us a huge hug and a huge high five and be like, ‘You guys are crushing it!’ Not because of what we're necessarily doing, but for creating this space and the experiences that the people who come are having.
“I think that Jamie would just be right here with us.”
The wind blows slightly in the background, gently rippling the strings on the surfboards that now lay peacefully in the grass.
A few moments later, Katie recalls a quote she found in Jamie’s journal shortly after he passed
away.
“Send It was formed by my story and my joys, but I hope the future is written by all that choose to wear it, share it, and find experiences from it,” Jamie wrote. “The terrors of this disease have provided me with the wonderful opportunity and desire to create something greater that I know will benefit so many!
“I leave it in your hands.”
About this story
In September 2018, Nissan met Katie Schou at an outdoor lifestyle trade show. After exchanging pleasantries and general work-speak, Katie shared the Send It story, casually mentioning that her brother, Jamie, had owned a TITAN, and the Send It team still used it as their “Send It TITAN”.
It was only a week earlier that Nissan had announced its Calling All Titans campaign, created to celebrate those using their trucks to do some sort of good in the world. After speaking further with Katie and learning more about Send It, it became abundantly clear: Jamie Schou was the Ultimate TITAN, and his story is more than worthy of celebration.
In the weeks following, Jamie’s TITAN – with over 200,000 miles on it – needed some significant repairs, but Send It didn’t have the funds to cover it. The timing was serendipitous, not long after that unplanned meeting in California, and Nissan was able to help keep Jamie’s TITAN on the road.
“I’m blown away,” Katie wrote after hearing of Nissan’s assistance, “and so immensely grateful for your support. This is such an incredible gift to our family and to the Send It Foundation.”
Today, the TITAN remains in the mountains and at the beach with the Send It team, hauling surfboards, mountain bikes, skis, snowboards and Send It participants – and, most importantly, a bed full of treasured memories.