I’ve seen so many people coming together to support you. Can you talk about how they’ve been able to help you and Chris and the kids through this? Man, because we don’t have that much family we’ve definitely had to rely on our friends. Chris and I both don’t typically ask for help, but people were asking how they could help when I was first diagnosed and we didn’t really know what to say. But then it became very clear that I was going to be doing treatment by myself and Chris was going to be taking care of the kids. And we were all over the place with childcare. So I was able to reach out to a network of all of our close friends from Kristi [Leskinen], Michelle [Parker], Cara [Williamson], Elena Hight, Sherry McConkey, Mercedes [Nicoll], Krissy [Fagan], Lindsay Salwasser, Claire Clelland— there’s been a huge umbrella of at least 20 to 30 people who’ve been able to spend dedicated time with me or with Chris, and the kids obviously. And that dedicated time has been so healing and made me feel like I had community even in some of the loneliest moments. Beyond that, there have been some incredible people that have reached out. One that stands out is Pat and Chelsea Moore. And Danny Davis and Red Gerard, Ben Ferguson, these days people send very inten-tional texts. We’ve had such a vast network of people come forward that really made us feel like snowboarding and skiing isn’t really just a com-munity, it’s family, and made this process a lot easier. Having support makes the heaviness of the situation feel less heavy. I’ve had a community of people helping me and my family carry the weight of this process instead of feeling like we were doing it alone. After your chemotherapy treatments, Donna Carpenter and Chris surprised you with a trip to Baldface Lodge. How did that trip benefit you physically and mentally? That trip happened after my sixth round of chemo. I was the most tired, fatigued and burnt out I’d ever been and had so many limitations be-cause of the treatments. I wasn’t really able to leave the house even to go snowboarding at Mammoth for groomers. I could do maybe three or four runs, but I was having digestive issues, so I really couldn’t be far from home. I had maybe gone snowboarding five times since the beginning of my diagnosis. And when Chris and Donna surprised me for that trip—I remember getting to Nelson and it was snowing. It was the beginning of April. It was a surreal world that I had been transplanted to, suddenly back into our element. Not only were we somewhere wintry, but we were traveling as a family. It felt like I had been teleported out of my whole diagnosis. It was like a temporary time capsule of perfection and magic, like the world came together at that one moment. Having support makes e heaviness of e situation feel less heavy. It snowed so much, we got pow and we were with the Burton Olym-pic team, with some of my favorite people and my family all together, and Jeff Pensiero did everything possible to make us comfortable. And that reconnection—I never realized how necessary plugging into your passion is until that moment. As soon as I was there, surrounded by those people, watching it snow, and strapped back into my snowboard, I felt like I had been plugged into a power source that I had been missing for years. I really hadn’t found myself back there since before having kids because of all the things that we had been through; I had not been able to completely detach from the world and the distractions around me and just simply be. The mountains are so healing and being able to celebrate and be there with people that, sure, they know what’s going on, but it didn’t matter. It was like, ‘Let’s just go snowboard and forget all of that!’ And I felt like that was the most revitalizing, reenergizing trip I could have possibly gone on before surgery. It really showed me how depressed I was and how alone I felt. And I immediately just felt like I was myself again. I was able to let down my guard and just be in that space and feel the snow and go back into the flow state of embracing the moment. And everything else just faded away. 1 Being supported by my sponsors through this diagnosis has made this situation less stressful. And knowing that Burton was there to help me connect back to nature brought a sense of healing and familiarity that I desperately needed. 2 1 Through this process, Kimmy and Chris have become even more aware of the healing power of nature and have used this knowledge to launch the Benchetler Fasani Foundation. “With the foundation, we want to lean on our resources to help create a connection via scholarships and grants for people to partner with alliances, nonprofits, or experiences that get them that connection to healing,” Kimmy says. Find out more at Bf-foundation.org 2 Kimmy worked with Burton this winter to include a Boarding for Breast Cancer shower card with her popular line of Burton AK outerwear this season. She says, “The biggest thing that we are hoping to do is raise awareness so that we can hopefully encourage others to become their own advocate.” KIMMY FASANI 081
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 20.3: Page 81
