When our team was dividing up who will represent Save One Life at various showings of “Bombardier Blood,” the incredible movie about Chris Bombardier’s Seven Summits Quest, I jumped at going to Utah. Utah is one of my favorite places: drenched in southwest colors of red and yellow, with soaring mesas and fins, and deep, rich canyons, it’s an adventurer’s dream. It seemed to fit the message of the movie, too: go out. See the world. Climb, hike, walk, smell fresh air, dream, do.

After spending a week exploring Antelope Island, Moab and Zion, I headed north on I-15 and reached Salt Lake City. The Utah Hemophilia Foundation’s executive director Scott Muir was there to greet me. And not only greet me, but to give me the gift of his paintings, bound as photos in a hardcover book! All the paintings are of Zion National Park, which he well knows I adore. Scott is a talented photographer and artist.

And apparently, executive director! We had a huge turnout for the event. About 150 or more families arrived to socialize, have dinner, enter raffles and engage with the various pharma and specialty pharmacy vendors. I was so happy to meet up with long time friends, colleagues and Facebook friends (some of whom I have not yet met in person). There were so many children, and while you might think their presence might disrupt a movie, the children were as good as gold.

I gave a few words before the movie started, and let the audience know this amazing stat: out of the 108 billion people who have ever walked this earth, less than 500 have ever accomplished all Seven Summits. I’m not sure you can easily even measure that! The audience was hushed as the movie began, and for 90 minutes, were riveted to the screens.

After the movie, one 14-year-old asked me a very leading question: how did Chris keep his factor warm on the mountain? “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” I replied. His eyes lit up! Chris must seem like a hero to so many, and thus, out of reach. But he is very approachable. The young teen was thrilled to get Chris’s email address, and I had to ask him: was he interested one day in doing mountain climbs? He nodded his head vigorously and smiled! Come join us, I invited him!

And coincidentally, Save One Life will be hosting a three-day hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in 2020!

Bombardier Blood is about making dreams come true, and if you can see it at your local chapter, please do! You may believe anything is possible.

Thanks to Utah Hemophilia Foundation for hosting this movie, and to all who sponsored the event. Special call out to Octapharma, which sponsored Chris’s last two and most expensive climbs, and for daring to take a risk on a young man with a big dream. Sometimes the riskiest adventures yield the greatest joys and successes!

Bombardier Blood was created by Believe Ltd, and is now produced by Alex Borstein. It showcases not only Chris’s climbs but also the disparity of treatment in bleeding disorder between developed and developing countries, being addressed through the work of Save One Life.