Rick Boulay, MD, has been putting in long hours at the St. Luke’s Fitness & Sports Performance Center at St. Luke’s West End Campus, whipping himself into his best physical shape since college -- and for a good cause.
In July, the highly respected St. Luke’s gynecologic-oncology surgeon will scale new heights as a physician and humanitarian as he treks up Peru's Ausangate trail to the Machu Picchu summit.
Ausangate is an arduous and rewarding climb spanning mountains, forests, glaciers and remote trails. Dr. Boulay will make the demanding 10-day, 55-mile journey to raise awareness and donations for research and patient support alongside 20 fellow members of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. The not-for-profit’s mission is to prevent, treat and end the scourge of ovarian cancer.
During his quarter-century long (and counting) career as a gynecologic oncologic surgeon, Dr. Boulay has treated hundreds of women suffering from ovarian cancer, one of the female reproductive system’s most challenging cancers to treat. He’s dedicating his trip to the memory of patients who survived the cancer as well as those who succumbed to the disease. Some 25,000 women are diagnosed annually with ovarian cancer, whose overall five-year survival rate is about 50%.
His motivation to tackle this daunting challenge stems also from his own personal experience as a cancer patient. Two years ago, Dr. Boulay was treated for prostate cancer, which runs in his family, by urologist Zachariah Goldsmith, MD, at St. Luke’s. He’s celebrating his good health with a nod to the lessons he has learned from his patients focusing on living each moment to the fullest.
“This is my year of saying yes to everything I might have declined in the past,” he explains. So far, he has visited Morocco and Iceland, bought a sports car and restarted downhill skiing, leading up to the trip of a lifetime that he might otherwise have passed up.
He was invited to join the trek by one of the first patients he treated for ovarian cancer in his career, who survived to later give birth to a now-23-year-old son, and he jumped at the opportunity.
To be physically prepared for the trip, Dr. Boulay has been training at the gym under the guidance of Patrick Babin, exercise specialist, who has him working on increasing his endurance, strength and flexibility, while also losing weight.
“I’ve never been a ‘gym guy,’ but I’m really enjoying this and feel myself getting into better shape for the trip,” he says.
Dr. Boulay will leave his home in Allentown and fly to Cusco, Peru. There, he’ll join the other members of the group to take time to adjust to the altitude. The Ausangate climb rises from 11,000 feet to the summit at 17,000 feet, which his higher than Dr. Boulay has ever stood on terra firma, and then descends to 8,000 feet. Since July will be winter there, the hikers may be hampered by snow, ice and freezing temperatures on the way up and then by flies and mosquitos at lower altitudes.
The accomplished and popular vocalist, who has sung pop favorites, jazz standards and classical songs in venues throughout the Lehigh Valley, doubts he will be able to serenade his companions during their climb. “I’ll be happy to be able to breathe at the higher altitudes,” he says.
Despite the demands and inconveniences of the trek, including being away from family and work, and “not having a shower for two weeks,” he’s looking forward to it with an inner calm.
“I’m not nervous at all,” he says. He’s at peace with the anticipation of roughing it while helping raise funds and celebrating life moment-by-moment. It’s a lesson, he admits, that took his cancer diagnosis for him to embrace.
“Every day is important,” he says. “We aren’t guaranteed many years here, and I want to live each one.”
To contribute to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition via Dr. Boulay’s hike, visit give.ovarian.org/perunewheights26/rick-boulay.
