Cancer Patient Competes In $50,000 Contest To Make Dreams Come True for Mikael Lepisto
Industry: Technology
Almost 31 years after the Chernobyl disaster, a cancer patient affected by its radiation competes for a $50,000 prize.
Pompano Beach, FL (PRUnderground) January 6th, 2017
38 year old thyroid cancer patient Mikael Lepisto hasn’t give up on his dreams. Instead he’s focusing on winning a $50,000 prize offered in a website competition.
Mikael’s life-long dream has been to live a simple life in a tropical country outside of the US. He attributes his dream to being born in the cold climate of Finland, where radiation exposure from Chernobyl may have contributed to his cancer. “A safe, warm place with beaches and clear water” is what he dreams of.
“One day I got a call saying I have cancer” Mikael recalls. “It is a scary word. You think life as you know it is over. You feel like there’s nothing you can do, but that isn’t true. Plenty of people overcome cancer.”
The competition Mikael entered is, for the lack of a better term, geeky. A website company who believes their service is so good they can’t be beat, has offered a $50,000 prize for whomever beats them.
To win, Mikael’s “SEO Hero” website needs to rank the highest out of all the competing entries for the next few months for a particular Google search term. If he can pull it off, he stands to win big.
“Winning this contest would be incredible for me,” Mikael explains. “It would really help me achieve the dream of living overseas. I don’t need much so this would be a huge financial boost to get me started.”
What he hopes most though, is to show others that while cancer can be devastating it is also a hurdle that many can overcome.
“Healthy people win contests all the time” Mikael, who suffers from other medical conditions as well, states matter of factly. “When someone who is constantly fatigued and whose time is consumed by medical appointments wins a contest, I think it could show people what determination can do.”
