Woman takes on a 40-mile high-altitude Andes trek to raise money for prostate cancer research

Originally Published: 03 JUN 26 15:49 ET

By Greenlee Clark

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    EAGLE, Idaho (KIVI) -- What started as a joke between a father and daughter is now days away from becoming reality.

Cynthia Wilson, who has lived in Avimor for 6 years, is preparing to take on a 40-mile, 7-day trek across the Andes Mountains in Peru — reaching elevations above 17,000 feet — to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer through the Zero Peaks Challenge. The trek ends at Machu Picchu. She leaves the weekend of June 6 as part of a group of 10, accompanied by a guide and support crew.

Wilson's fundraising minimum is $10,000, but her personal goal is $15,000 for Zero Prostate Cancer — the largest national prostate cancer awareness organization. Donations are being accepted through July 7.

The journey is all the more remarkable given what Wilson has overcome to get here. At 16, she broke her lower spine in a car accident and was told she would likely need back surgery by age 40 — the first in a series of surgeries — and that she may not be able to carry or bear a child. She has since had a son, and the bone that was once floating freely in her spine has gradually fused back together over roughly 2 decades. She has also dealt with chronic migraines, autoimmune issues, bone spurs in her knees and hips, and shoulder problems throughout her adult life.

"It's not something I've ever dreamed... I thought that I could possibly do," Wilson said.

To prepare for the trek, Wilson has been training for 6 months with personal trainer Brandon Peters, who has lived in Avimor since 2022 and is her longest-running client. Peters first met Wilson at the Avimor prostate cancer awareness walk, where she learned he was a trainer. The connection was personal for him as well — his father passed away from cancer.

Peters said the trail Wilson is taking on is considered the most physically demanding in the Andes, and that when he learned what she had signed up for, he knew the training would need to be intentional and specific.

Each session is structured to build the strength and stability Wilson will need on the trail. Sessions begin with banded work to mobilize her hips, activate her glutes and warm up her shoulders, then move into balance-based exercises including step-ups and cross-diagonal lunges designed to mimic the demands of hiking over rocks and uneven terrain. Sessions finish with core and back work to maintain postural integrity throughout the trek.

"As soon as your posture fails, then your joints start to fail too," Peters said.

He said the training has been tailored carefully around Wilson's history of injuries — focusing on strengthening the muscles around her knees to manage bone spurs, building shoulder stability for carrying a pack and developing hip and core strength to protect her lower back.

Peters said the progress he has seen over nearly 4 years of training together has been consistent and meaningful — improved range of motion, stronger posture, better endurance, strength, stability and balance.

"It's just a testament to persevering and pushing, and it's so motivating, and like, I'm inspired by her, like, honestly," said Peters. "I haven't told you that, but I truly am," Peters added while looking over at Wilson.

He said Wilson's perseverance through chronic migraines and setbacks has been a defining quality throughout their work together.

"She'll have these times where she gets this chronic migraine, and she's just going through it. Sometimes she has no choice but to do nothing, but she gets back on the horse, she gets back in her sessions, and she gets back to training, and she's just been super consistent," Peters said.

He said Wilson's story is a positive testament.

"The body is capable of doing so much more than I think we give it credit for, as long as you're doing the right things for it."

"If you really put your mind to it, you take the right steps — don't be messy about it, have a goal — you can accomplish so much more than you probably could imagine," Peters said.

Wilson is also seeing a functional medicine doctor and chiropractor in Avimor who is performing soft wave therapy on her knees and shoulders — a treatment that uses deep-penetrating waves to break up scar tissue and stimulate the body's natural healing response. A massage therapist who specializes in neck and shoulders and is herself an avid backpacker rounds out Wilson's care team, focusing on the specific rotations and movements she will need on the trail. All three of her care providers live in Avimor.

"In the last 6 months that I've just been training for this, I would say I've felt the healthiest physically, but also mentally. The hiking outside in nature is huge, and being able to live in Avimor and being able to say, I don't have time to drive somewhere to go for a hike — I'm just going to walk 5 minutes, and then I'm already on a trail."

Wilson's motivation is deeply personal. Her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer 17 years ago. After the cancer returned following initial treatment, doctors gave him approximately 4 years to live. He is still here. Over the years, he has served on government research advisory boards — reviewing studies before they were conducted on patients and advocating for changes that made them more viable — and has been able to access some of those treatments himself to extend his life.

Today, his cancer has spread significantly. He has already undergone multiple rounds of treatment, recently had targeted radiation on his lower spine and liver, and currently has 2 fractures in one hip caused by bone weakness from years of treatment. One chemotherapy option remains.

Despite all of that, Wilson's father leads a monthly prostate cancer support group at Eagle Hills Church in Eagle — a group he started about 6 years ago after moving to the area and recognizing the need for local connection. Wilson's mother runs a parallel group for partners and caregivers, meeting at the same time in a separate room.

Wilson said the trek is also a way to bring her dad along on the adventure in spirit. He will be able to track her location on the mountain in real time through a link she plans to send him.

"This could potentially be a way for him to have some excitement without having to go anywhere."

Beyond the trek, Wilson and her father organize a prostate cancer awareness walk every September in Avimor — now in its 6th year. The event is held in the lot across from the community center and features food trucks, local vendors and entrepreneurs from the neighborhood. This year, the walk is planned for a Saturday in mid-September, and organizers hope to connect it with the farmers market across the street.

Wilson said the most important message she wants people to hear is about early detection. Prostate cancer often has no symptoms until it has already spread, but a simple PSA blood test — prostate-specific antigen — can detect rising levels before symptoms appear.

"If you go get checked and you find out you have it when it's in like stage 0 of cancer, you treat it, and it's no problem. But if you wait until you have the symptoms, it's probably already metastatic, and it's probably gonna just constantly be — we're chasing after it," Wilson said.

She said she has watched her father's condition progress for nearly half her life, and still believes in hope.

"I still feel like there's hope out there, and there's definitely hope for all the other guys that are out there and their families, their kids, their spouses, to their grandkids, you know, to know that this doesn't have to be something that is the end."

Zero Prostate Cancer will be posting updates online during the trek. Wilson is also sharing training updates and the donation link on her Facebook page, where the link is pinned to the top. Donations are accepted through July 7.

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