By Mara Klecker

Chris Krizek spent his career as the vice president of a nonprofit foundation, raising money for hospitals and helping to run walks to raise funds for the fight against cancer. When his own cancer diagnosis came, he knew it was serious. The first time he met with his oncologist after a diagnosis of mucosal melanoma in 2019, he told the doctor that he wanted to live long enough to see both of his children graduate high school. Earlier this fall, he moved his second son into college.

Now an empty nester and on disability, Krizek is doubling down on a new kind of work. When his wife, Katie, comes home from her job as an occupational therapist, she knows she can find Chris in the basement with Charlie the dog. There, Chris spends his time carefully painting, arranging and gluing dozens of wine corks into elaborate creations – all crafted and sold to raise money for AIM at Melanoma.

“That’s one thing about Chris,” Katie said. “He’s passionate about whatever it is he’s doing. So when he picked this up, he’s going to do it for sure.”

After multiple surgeries (on his brain, lungs, kidney and knee) and 18 rounds of immunotherapy, Chris’ latest scans showed no obvious signs of melanoma.

“They don’t know why I’m still here, you know, but they call me the miracle patient,” he said. “I just, I wake up and when my eyes open up, I get up and I do it again.”

Still, the treatments have left lingering side effects, including pain, nausea, colitis and intense neuropathy in his hands and feet. That’s limited what types of crafting he can do, but not what he can make out of wine cork. So far, he’s made cacti and American flags and holiday-themed decorations like Santa hats and Christmas trees.

Chris has always loved Christmas. He was the neighbor who always went all out with the Christmas lights and yard decorations.

Last December, Chris didn’t put up lights. His brain surgery was scheduled for December 19 and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to take the decorations down. After his stay in the hospital, he arrived back home to find that a group of friends and neighbors in the subdivision in rural Wisconsin had decorated and strung lights on his house in his absence.

“We’ve been fortunate that we have a good support system,” Katie said, adding that their faith and a strong prayer network also helped get them through the hardest parts of Chris’s melanoma journey.

AIM at Melanoma also proved to be a valuable resource for hope and up-to-date information on mucosal melanoma (which accounts for just 1.4% of all melanoma), Katie said.

That’s why when friends started asking about the wine cork creations that Chris was making, Katie had the idea to sell them and give the money to AIM. The project is the perfect combination of their two careers – occupational therapy and philantrhopy.

“If AIM is going to give us hope, I felt there was something I need to give to them,” Chris said.

His message to other melanoma patients is simple: Don’t be idle. Don’t wait to check off the items on your bucket list. Surround yourself with loved ones. And find a way to make a difference, even if it’s sharing a story or message of awareness.

“Cancer isn’t the definition of who we are,” Chris said. “You know, it just gives us one more thing to work through on a given day.”