FULTON, NY – The sudden onset of life-threatening cancer didn’t stop him. Losing his sight as a result didn’t stop him. The inevitable setbacks and hardships he faced through a challenging recovery still didn’t stop him.

As it seems, nothing can stop Tim Conners from “redefining possible.”

Surviving cancer was the first obstacle, but Conners’ story is much more than his fight for survival. In fact, that is where his story just begins, he said.

“I was at a point in my life where I questioned, what kind of life is this for me? I could barely move, I’m now blind. I asked myself, is life worth living in those moments when you’re tested the most because you feel like you’ve lost it all,” Conners told Oswego County Today.

But with an unbreakable spirit, those moments of doubt left as quickly as they came and he vowed that even though cancer took his eyesight, he wouldn’t let it touch his spirit.

Today, he commutes once a week to complete his last semester at Ithaca College to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies, he has a newly published book for sale, and has raised nearly $20,000 for a fundraiser that both challenges him as an individual and gives back to multiple organizations that he feels he owes his life to.

From Moving Mountains to Climbing Mountains, Fulton Native Seeks to Redefine ‘Possible’

FULTON — Weeks away from embarking on the centerpiece event of what he calls “The Mission,” Fulton native Tim Conners says he’s ramping up both his training and the campaign of awareness and fundraising for a journey that once seemed out of the realm of possibility.

Conners, 22, lost his sight and very nearly his life in a years-long battle with cancer when he was still in high school. Now, he’s got his mind set on reaching another mountaintop.

In May, Conners and a small group of family, friends and mountaineering professionals will fly to Tanzania, intent on summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak.

For the last year, Conners and his foundation, MounTimPossible, have been fundraising not just for the trip, but also to donate $10,000 to four non-profit groups he says helped him through his illness and recovery.

“We’re connecting with people, getting the word out, booking different speaking engagements and raising this money for these groups,” Conners said. “Sometimes things don’t seem to be falling into place, or we’re moving forward at a rate where we think we won’t get there, but we always end up hitting our goals.”

Conners said he and his team have reached their target of raising $59,750 by March 18. That includes travel and guide costs, as well as the $40,000 total to donate to charity.

Last year, Conners also published a book titled “It’s Impossible Until You Do It: Succeeding in the Face of Adversity,” chronicling his fight and victory over T-cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma and the lessons and effects it left him with.

Proceeds from the book are going towards “The Mission,” defined as “climb a mountain, live life fully, make a difference and redefine possible.”

That mission includes raising a total of $500,000 for the organizations No Barriers USA, The Joe Andruzzi Foundation, the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital and the Michael Napoleone Memorial Foundation.

In anticipation of his trek up Kilimanjaro, Conners has been training relentlessly, spending six hours at a time on a Nordic Track machine to simulate the rigors of the climb.

That’s a long way from where Conners was in 2010, when after a bone marrow transplant and nearly a year in isolation to reboot his immune system, he could barely take several steps unassisted.

“Every day Tim is here, he’s on borrowed time and he’s defeated the odds, so every day is a gift,” said Tim’s mother, Betsy Conners.

Tim Conners said his itinerary to summit Kilimanjaro will take approximately nine days.

Tim’s father Mike Conners will be in the group traveling to Africa in May and says light-heartedly that his “expectation is to get up and down the mountain and come back alive.”

“It will be a huge undertaking and it’s a daunting task but very exciting,” Mike Conners said. “A lot of us talk the story but Tim lives it every day and keeps moving forward when many others would lay down and stop.”

“He’s an inspiration to me and many others,” he added.

http://www.oswegocountynewsnow.com/news/conners-looks-to-complete-his-mission/article_c56290ca-09bc-11e7-8f6e-47eb843795d5.html

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It is an emotional homecoming for Tim Conners and his dad that has been years in the making.

“Just to be there seven years ago and him to tell me you have cancer to us standing on the highest mountain on the top of Africa. What a journey,” Conners said.

Loved ones, including his dog, Lang, welcomed Tim home after he reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

After beating cancer that stole his sight, Tim has been on a mission to overcome the seemingly impossible.

“I can’t see we’re at the top. I know we’re at the top. People are telling me you’re at the top, but then when I reach out and touch the sign that’s like the real moment for me. Like we’re there. We did this,” Conners said.

After 18 months of planning and 53 hours of climbing, Tim and his team, which included his dad and uncle, reached the top.

Tim said it is still to soon to grasp the gravity of his journey.

He did it to raise awareness and money for all of the charities that helped him beat his illness.

“And to have him pay it forward is the thing I’m most proud of. We saw a lot of kids along the way that didn’t make it and family members who have been beaten by cancer and time does it for all of them,” Betsy Conners, Tim’s mother, said.

The climb was for Tim was grueling.

Cancer and the treatment that followed has left his body vulnerable to the elements.

“We had a lot of support, a lot of perseverance and a lot of love along the way and with all those things combined, we as a group were able to do this,” Conners said.

https://cnycentral.com/news/local/fulton-cancer-survivor-summits-africas-tallest-mountain

When Tim Conners collected his wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2012 at the age of 18, he was blind from childhood leukemia that had spread to his optic nerve. A football player and wrestler who’d never been an outdoorsman, he asked to meet Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb the Seven Summits – the highest mountains on seven continents.

Conners’ wish came true. He had 2½ terrifying but transformative days of outdoor adventures in Colorado with Weihenmayer, who lost his sight to a degenerative eye disorder at 13. Now, Conners is training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the 19,000-foot peak in Tanzania, shortly after he graduates from Ithaca College in May.

“In a lot of ways,” Conners, now 22, says, “losing my sight gave me my vision.”

Conners’ journey began on April 3, 2010, when he was diagnosed at the Syracuse pediatric hospital near his home with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Conners had T-cell ALL, a very aggressive subset that required intense chemotherapy to push his leukemia into remission. But it was back three months later, this time in his eyes. Surgery failed to save Conners’ sight.

He Lost His Sight to Cancer, But Not His Vision of a Full Life

PHOENIX, NY – Phoenix High School hosted the annual Oswego County Olympiad on Thursday (May 11,) allowing hundreds of exceptional student athletes the chance to participate in friendly track and field competition.

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n its third year, 22-year-old Tim Conners of Fulton, who narrowly defeated a life threatening cancer diagnosis as a teenager, kicked off the event with his inspiring opening remarks.

Speaking to the crowd of 460 student athletes, Conners spread a message of perseverance, a lesson he learned while battling for his life and even after as he discovered how to operate daily life in a sightless world.

“As you all know, we have the power in our hands to do whatever we want and we can overcome those barriers and that’s what we are here today to celebrate,” he told the young athletes.

Conners offered CiTi and all nine school districts represented a signed copy of his book, It’s Impossible Until You Do It and capped his opening statement as all 460 students repeated the title aloud.

“I believe we have the power to do anything and if you live by this, you all will have that power as well,” he said, as the group repeated the mantra in unison.

Conners will continue spreading inspiration as he plans to tackle the highest point on the African continent by summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro next month as part of a fundraiser deemed MounTimPossible.

Fulton Native Kicks Off Third Annual Oswego County Olympiad