‘Live like you’re living’: DJ Stewart’s journey battling brain cancer continues to inspire KC community
Photo Courtesy of DJ Stewart
Skateboarding has always been an integral part of DJ Stewart’s life, having grown to love rolling around on four wheels since a young age. While living in Columbus Park a little over a decade ago, he and other local skaters brought their heads and hands together to innovate the KC scene.
The concrete carvers reimagined an abandoned and drug-infested cul-de-sac into a makeshift skate park. Over the last ten or so years, the slab of concrete has transformed into what many know as the Harrison Street DIY Skate Park.
The amateur constructors pulled plenty of rebar and concrete together to form the neighborhood hangout. What started as just a curb and ledge to kick a few tricks has now sprawled into a true skate park with a half pipe, bowl, and plenty of other infrastructure for coasters to rip around on—all developed strictly by the blood, sweat, and tears of Kansas Citians searching to restore what was once a sketchy, plagued section of Columbus Park into a location centered around building community.
“It sums up Kansas City skateboarding,” DJ says. “It’s open, inclusive, safe, awesome.”
As any skater knows, falling is a part of the gig. But, in 2019, DJ would take a fall unlike any he had previously endured during his lifelong skateboarding stint.
“It’s going to be a fight”
Vital monitors beeping and chatter of friends, family, and medical staff are what stirred him from a deep sleep back on what was supposed to be a day dedicated to the commencement of a new chapter in his life.
While filling out onboarding paperwork for a new job, ironically enough, health insurance documents, DJ had a seizure, which he found out after waking up from his blackout in the hospital. But if this was a ‘good news, bad news’ scenario, that information would be considered the good. What the doctors would tell him next would be even more crippling: DJ was informed that he had been diagnosed with grade four glioblastoma—the most severe form of brain cancer—with an estimated 11 to 18 months left to live.
The news was devastating, to say the least. He had just got engaged to his wife Erin and they recently purchased a home together. After a few days in the hospital, DJ was sent home. While the ‘norm’ was completely thrown out the window, the faith still remained.
“He was never not hopeful,” Erin says. “The second they told him he had a brain tumor, he was like, ‘I’m gonna beat it.’”
“That feeling never really went away,” Stewart says. “It just grew with more knowledge. It became, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a fight, but we’re going to beat it.’”
Photo Courtesy of DJ Stewart
Just three weeks after the incident, DJ and Erin came across a unique opportunity: ‘Brides in the Bottoms’—an event where a lucky couple is chosen to have their wedding paid for in the West Bottoms.
“Right after we got home from the hospital with 35 staples in my head, I submitted a video to the radio station saying why we deserve the wedding, and we ended up winning,” DJ says.
After his life-altering incident, DJ had to obviously make some pretty heavy decisions. The solemnity of his injury was nothing to play with. Considering his two biggest passions were skateboarding and motorcycles, there were going to have to be some changes to how DJ would navigate life moving forward.
But, for DJ, change doesn’t mean doing away with lifelong hobbies altogether. Instead, adaptation and perseverance took the forefront of his life.
“I’m different, but I’m still me, and that’s something I wasn’t willing to compromise,” DJ says.
While DJ worked on getting back on his feet, he received unfortunate news on the status of his brain cancer just one year after his fall and diagnosis.
After his friends and family held a party to celebrate the year benchmark since the battle began where they gifted him a new motorcycle, he went into the hospital for an MRI the very next day. Doctors informed him that the tumor was back and a second surgery was necessary.
Considering this particular hospital stay was during COVID, DJ had limited contact with friends and family, which was a major flip from his first instance.
“I’m not an isolation guy,” he says. “I’m out and about wanting to see people, wanting to talk, and it was really hard to just keep my normal positivity while just being in this room.”
But remaining positive is all that he could do. And after multiple rounds of chemotherapy and countless doctor visits, doctors cleared DJ of the tumor and took him off of chemo.
Photo Courtesy of DJ Stewart
A Newfound Vocation
Fast forward a few years to 2022. After interviewing DJ and Erin and following the couple for a year, their friend Ryan Lovell made a mini-documentary on their journey called Rare Enough. The video gained some traction, reaching thousands of viewers on different streaming platforms. This was the ammo that DJ needed to turn a new page in his life.
During the ‘Brides in the Bottoms’ event, DJ met Matt Anthony, the Founder of Head for the Cure—a Kansas City-based 501c3 that focuses on spreading brain cancer awareness and raising money for research through events and community outreach.
With a semi-viral video to back his case up, DJ pitched a wild business idea to Anthony. He wanted to travel around the country, going to different Head for the Cure events to spread awareness as a brain cancer survivor himself.
Anthony got on board, and now all that was left was finding a set of reliable wheels for the road. And DJ wasn’t hitting the pavement alone; Encouraged by him and others along the way, Erin decided to hop on the bandwagon and they sold their home.
“Erin got inspired, quit her badass, nice corporate job, and went and did exactly what helped me,” DJ says.
That bandwagon was a 34-foot class A motorhome that they picked up in Florida during a Fourth of July weekend.
“We went through every possible weather on the way back,” Stewart says. “Full on trial by fire. Two hours in, we’re in monsoon rain. We put it through the ringer, but it was the coolest first trip already.”
So the couple took off. They began traveling all around the nation with the organization spreading the word about brain cancer and accruing funds for research. Throughout the course of their philanthropic travel, Erin officially took on a role with Head for the Cure serving as a caregiver’s caregiver.
Because she understands the trials and tribulations that come with being the main support system for someone battling something so severe, she is able to be an open ear and a helping hand for caregivers who may be struggling with the unprecedented duties they take on.
Photo Courtesy of DJ Stewart
“It feels really good to be able to give back and reciprocate and provide resources for patients and caregivers,” Erin says. “…You can’t do this alone. Caregivers need caregivers too.”
Since they began their expedition, the two have participated in numerous Head for the Cure events, being able to see the White Sands, Moab, and Fall Creek Falls, along with plenty of other prime destinations. They’ve gotten the chance to meet some pretty cool people along the way as well—one being skate legend Tony Hawk who got involved with one of the nonprofit’s events.
“As a skateboarder, that is the mecca. That is like the alpha and omega, basically,” DJ says.
Both Erin and DJ agree that they do not take the opportunity to help give back lightly and say that the experiences have completely reshaped their lives.
“It’s the most understudied, underfunded disease, so it’s kind of like up to us to be able to spread awareness, and I feel like we’re here to do that, especially for the people that don’t have a voice that aren’t here,” Erin says.
DJ says that he likes to present a simple, yet motivational question when he meets other individuals undergoing a similar situation.
“What would you be doing today if you didn’t have a brain tumor? When I would have shitty days where I was feeling down, I would try to find any semblance of what my previous self would have been doing,” DJ says. “If it was a nice day, I would be out on a motorcycle, or I would be skating. If it wasn’t, I would be in the garage dicking around with something, or watching stupid movies with my friends. I would just try to do everything that I could to-”
“live the most normal,” Erin says, finishing DJ’s thoughts.
‘Til the Wheels Fall Off
Photo Courtesy of DJ Stewart
Although he remained in high spirits, DJ’s journey has been far from easy. He credits his friends, family, and the Kansas City skate community in particular for being his backbone during the recovery process.
“Absolutely no way that I’m close to what I am now without Erin, without my family, friends, without skateboarding, possibly not even alive,” Stewart says.
Since the birth of their first child, Ellis, Erin and DJ now find themselves a bit more grounded, having sold the RV to set up shop to raise the small human. And although the motorhome is no longer in the picture, the two of them, sometimes three, continue to travel to different cities spreading awareness and raising money for Head for the Cure. The eight-month-old has already been on 11 flights, surpassing my smidgen five or so flights in my 24 years on this Earth.
What the couple is currently looking forward to is the Go Skate Day Shred for the Cure event on June 21 where the KC community will come together for a day filled with live music, painting, skate lessons, and local vendors.
“I owe everything in my cool ass life to Kansas City skateboarding,” DJ says. “And this is really a day that I get to combine the things that I love, and I kind of get to give back to the skateboarding scene in Kansas City.”
DJ and Head for the Cure will also be joining hand-in-hand with Ability KC for the event—another local nonprofit that provides medical rehabilitation services for a handful of medical conditions.
“I get to just be like Willy Wonka handing out chocolate bars, basically,” DJ says. But I’ve got 30 skateboards that I get to give out to kids who need them more than anything.”
Shred for the Cure will be held at Harrison DIY Skate Park for what will most likely be the last of its kind at the park. Due to private investors purchasing the plot of land, the skate park is in danger, and most likely won’t make it through 2025, according to DJ. But he isn’t letting the bearings rust that easily—He is hopeful to find another local location to keep the DIY Skate Park legacy that the city has built alive.
Photo Courtesy of Timeless
“I want to find another spot for a DIY, similar to the one we have, and then I want the city to donate Gillam Park pool,” DJ says. “I want to donate that to Kansas City skateboarding, and I want to clean it up and make it a safer spot because it’s just in a beautiful, but kind of sketchy area.”
On top of Go Skate Day, Head for the Cure has partnered with local cannabis company Timeless which has released a flip case and battery combo for cannabis vaporizers across all six states where the brand is located. Between May 15 and Jun30, Missourians have been able to purchase these John Malta-designed cases in which all profits go directly to Head for the Cure.
It would have been easy for DJ to lie down and give up. It would have been easy to never get back on a skateboard again. To never get back on a motorcycle. But that is not who DJ Stewart is. Instead, he has taken the most unfortunate circumstances that he could possibly endure and turned them into one of the most inspiring stories to come out of our wonderful city. In turn, the perseverance, drive, and commitment that he shows to never give up is what helps motivate those who face that same level of fear, despondent, and daunting challenges in their everyday lives.
“Not to be too cliche with the ‘live like you’re dying’ thing, but I’m more like, ‘Live like you’re living’—have something to look forward to,” DJ says.
