Brain cancer patient Zephyr Mays ’01 runs with resiliency

A brain cancer diagnosis in 2022 ended a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard and left helicopter pilot Zephyr Mays ’01 searching for a purpose.

But with each stride in last month’s Boston Marathon, the former Tar Heel fencer felt he was doing what he was called to do.

“I was really searching for some purpose, some direction in my life, because it really felt rudderless,” Mays said.

When a member of Mays’ care team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston told him about the institute’s marathon team, he thought it would be a great way to use his love of running for good.

The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team has raised more than $140 million to improve cancer treatment and patient care since 1990. Mays raised more than $63,000.

“I found the team environment to be a lot like the fencing team but also like my Coast Guard family,” Mays said.

Along the 26.2-mile route, he saw reminders of why he was running, like his brain cancer support group and their sign. “They actually misspelled my name,” said Mays, laughing. “They left off the ‘H’ because we’re brain cancer patients, right?”

At the 25th mile, Mays took a selfie with 9-year-old Finn, the patient partner who is “a big part of my why.”

And at the end of the race, Mays embraced wife Jessica and daughter Lillian. “They’re proud of all the fundraising that I was able to do,” Mays said. “They’ve been really supportive for this whole thing.”

“There are a lot of unique and amazing experiences in the world, but there is only one Boston,” Mays said of the marathon. (Submitted photos)

The diagnosis

Mays’ life changed on Father’s Day in 2022, when he was running just north of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. A car came dangerously close to him, and Mays threw his arms up in disbelief.

“That’s the last thing I remember,” Mays said. “A bystander saw me fall and hit my head really hard.”

At the hospital, a CT scan revealed a mass on his brain. Ten days later at Dana-Farber, he learned he had a rare form of brain cancer.

The first step of treatment was an awake craniotomy. “Is it a good thing to tell your neurosurgeon a joke while he’s poking around your brain?” Mays wondered. “I think I even told him, ‘What do you call a fish that does brain surgery? A neuro-sturgeon.’”

Radiation and chemotherapy treatment followed for over a year. Since then, he’s taken what he calls a “bio-assassin” — a powerful twice-daily pill. “It’s what’s keeping me alive today,” he said.

 

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Chapel Hill to the Coast Guard

The back of Mays’ race singlet listed those he ran in memory of, including Ron Miller, the legendary Carolina fencing coach for 52 years, who died in 2023.

“Coach Miller had a huge impact on the direction of my life just because of who he was,” Mays said. “He gave me an opportunity that I took advantage of.”

Mays graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy then enlisted in the Coast Guard in February 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“That really changed the course of my life,” Mays said.

Mays spent eight years as a rescue swimmer before completing flight training. From Alaska to Puerto Rico, he served in search-and-rescue, drug interdiction and fisheries enforcement.

Lessons from military service also apply to his cancer journey:

• “If you are facing hard situation, like a serious health challenge, know that you’re not alone.”
• “Our capacity to do hard things is far greater than we actually know or believe.”

Like it says on his singlet, Mays is “living proof” of that.