Jeff McManus – “I used to be a loner before meeting Cara.”
Jeff was a caregiver for his wife, Cara, who passed away in April 2015. She only survived 20 months after being given her stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. They met in 2006 and quickly became good friends. They would have been married for 4 years in June of that year. Jeff confessed to me, “I used to be a loner before meeting Cara. She brought me out of my shell and we started hanging out with friends.”
Jeff has a PhD in biology and works full time in a research lab. He enjoys his work and his coworkers. In his free time he likes playing trivia with his friends, going to Indie rock concerts, and cooking. He and Cara both loved cooking and often made meals together. He also likes to stay active by riding his bike, another fun activity him and Cara did together, lifting weights, and playing basketball.
Jeff became involved with advocacy along with Cara. He raises awareness on Facebook and Twitter to help inform others. Lungevity’s Breathe Deep in Cleveland came about largely due to her efforts. She worked on this project for much of her last year, but unfortunately was not there for the event. She passed away just 2 months before so Jeff spoke in her honor about how much it meant to her. This is something he says he’ll continue. 
Cara had the ALK mutation but none of the 7 treatments she tried worked for very long.
Jeff confided, “Cara’s passing took everyone by surprise, including her doctors. It happened so fast.”
How did you manage to get through the day after her passing?
“Initially, I was just shocked. The immediate aftermath kept me busy with the funeral and going through her things with her family. It gave me something else to focus on and I had a lot of support from family and friends.” He also befriended a woman online whose husband had just passed away from lung cancer as well. This helped him get through the tough times.
Something you might not know about Jeff is he’s big Star Wars fan. Jeff and Cara actually watched Return of the Jedi on their first date. In fact, his twitter handle: Jeff3263827, is a Star Wars reference.
What inspires you?
“Cara’s life was an inspiration to me because she had something really horrible happen to her and in spite of that, she had a great attitude and continued to live her life. I carry her spirit with me.”
You can read more about their journey on Cara’s blog:http://metastaticfantastic.blogspot.com/
Each day during Lung Cancer Awareness Month (November), a lung cancer blogger will share a brief profile of someone involved with lung cancer. The person profiled might be a patient, caregiver, advocate, researcher, or healthcare provider.
Yesterday Luna Okada profiled Rachel Willeford on her blog http://lunaoblog.blogspot.com/
Tommorow’s post will be on http://samlmixon.blogspot.com/ where she will profile Roz Brodsky..
All profiles can be found the day after posting on the #LCSM Chat blog at http://lcsmchat.com/. A list of links to all the profiles on the original bloggers’ pages can be found at on the #LCSM Chat site on the Profiles in Lung Cancer page.
Faith, Family & Friends 