First Descents founder in running for CNN 'Hero of the Year'

Just as Brad Ludden began his professional whitewater kayaking career, his aunt was diagnosed with cancer. While he was able to see the effects cancer can have on a person and their family, Ludden also realized he had a therapeutic escape in kayaking, and if it worked for him, he might be able to help others.

“I recognized that kayaking could be a really powerful and transformative experience for people and that I was in a position to create it for them as an athlete,” Ludden said. “So I decided I wanted to find a way to give that experience of kayaking back to other people who might benefit from it, and I chose people with cancer based on my aunt’s experience.”

Ludden, 35, founded First Descents, a nonprofit focused on sharing outdoor adventure sport experiences with young cancer patients, in 2001. He was recently selected as one of 10 finalists for the CNN Hero of the Year award that honors everyday people who are changing the world. The top hero is chosen through online voting, with the winner receiving $100,000. All 10 finalists receive $10,000.

“It’s pretty overwhelming, frankly,” he said on the recognition from CNN, “but it’s a good thing. It’s humbling.”

Ludden grew up in Kalispell, learning to kayak on the Flathead River system when he was 9, but left and never quite returned once he began traveling internationally for kayaking when he was 14.

His focus as an athlete were the first descents — paddling a section of river that no one has ever paddled before. The feeling of a first descent was the feeling he was determined to share with the people he tried to help, so it seemed like a fitting name for the organization.

“For me as an athlete, at the peak of my career we were doing these first descents that were really dangerous, remote rivers in wild parts of the world,” he said. “When you would drop into one it was a very committing thing, there was a sense of adventure and wonder and unknown below you, and it was a big challenge to face. There was an incredible feeling of accomplishment and identity and self worth that came along with it.”

The nonprofit began its work by taking a handful of young cancer patients on a week-long kayaking trip in Colorado and has grown to having a full-time staff and bringing in nearly $4 million in revenue a year.

For that first trip, it took everything he and his First Descent partners had to round up enough donations to fund the project, and they weren’t even sure it would have the desired effect.

“We were all hopeful that this would be a positive and transformative experience, but we had no evidence, we were guessing at that point,” he said. “The testimonials said it was a tremendously powerful experience at the end of the week for those guys and we knew we had to do more of it because of that.”

The programs expanded in 2008 from just kayaking to including rock climbing, surfing, rafting, trekking and more.

“Anything that qualifies as an outdoor adventure seems to work pretty well,” he said.

First Descents has served over 500 young cancer patients so far in 2016, and Ludden said he makes it a goal to spend at least three weeks a year on kayaking trips with the participants.

He’s grateful for the exposure the program has gotten from the CNN award, and said it helps bring light to a suffering group that he feels doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

“It’s been a tremendous amount of visibility for the organization but as importantly I think just for young adults with cancer. It’s an underserved population, it gets very little attention and so exposure like this is what it need so that people start understanding that this is an issue and that this does need attention,” he said.

Voting for the top hero continues through Dec. 6. The winner will be announced on Dec. 11. Profiles of all 10 finalists and voting information can be found at www.cnn.com/specials/cnn-heroes.