‘Gift from God.’ Kevin Eckery knew his cancer was a death sentence, until it wasn’t.
Kevin Eckery thought 2020 was either going to be the year he died or the year he finished preparing for his death in 2021.
He had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma. The immunotherapy drug that had saved former President Jimmy Carter in 2015 did nothing for Eckery. The disease was in his lymph nodes, which meant that Eckery’s life was now measured in months. He spent much of 2019 preparing for the end.
“I was thinking of managing myself to a really classy exit,” said Eckery.
He spoke in the typical dry deadpan of a Sacramento political veteran who has made his living by managing the crisis communications of some of the most controversial clients anyone in public relations could ever have in this town. Eckery is 61 and a state capital veteran – he served as press secretary for Gov. Pete Wilson in the ‘90s. He is now spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.
Can you imagine? The diocese once shielded pedophile priests and have had to come clean publicly with Eckery’s poised presence standing as a steady guard rail between his clients, widespread public outrage and the subpoenas of California’s attorney general.
Eckery handled his jobs with aplomb. His perfect coif of auburn hair never wavered, nor did his genial professionalism in even the most heated of confrontations with the public.
Calm voice of the diocese
In 2013, for example, a popular Sacramento priest was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl in a notorious case that drew many headlines.
After the verdict was read and the priest was led off to prison, Eckery was standing in the courthouse hallway when a delusional follower of the priest accosted him, grabbed him and kept saying, ”congratulations” over and over. It was beyond unnerving and for one scary moment, a number of disturbing outcomes seemed possible.
Eckery never raised his voice, didn’t get angry, didn’t panic. He made eye contact with the woman while prying loose from her grip. She walked away and the crisis was averted. All in a day’s work.
If the confrontation bothered Eckery, he never let on. It was a tough moment, he’s had his share of moments, but none was cancer growing in his body.
They couldn’t compare to several lengthy, emotional conversations with his former wife to make certain that his daughter would be provided for after he was gone. They weren’t in the same category as the lesions on his legs that were deep and painful. They weren’t like the side effects to the drugs he was taking to live, causing inflammation of his colon. The rash over 50 percent of his body. The poignant memory of only just getting re-married in 2016.
The wedding of Eckery and fellow communications pro Carol Dahmen was one of the great Sacramento gatherings of politics and media like you rarely see anymore. They wed at the Sutter Club, with an unbelievable reception at Mulvaney’s B&L – which closed on a warm Saturday night to host the Eckery/Dahmen reception.
There was great joy, there was singing, dancing and schmoozing, all in honor of a couple whose array of friends were vast and wide. The years since then for Eckery and his family have been happy and fulfilling.
Coping with a fatal diagnosis
And then there was cancer.
If you’ve met Eckery you know he’s probably leading the league in fair, pink skin. “It’s no secret that my ethnic heritage is Irish,” he said.
Eckery had many moles removed and, after a while, they all were sent to the lab for biopsies. They always came back negative until they didn’t. By late 2018, Eckery noticed a wart growing on his leg that concerned him. But he kept quiet until after the holidays. A doctor visit quickly confirmed the worst. By May of 2019, the cancer had spread, was now metastatic.
Pembrolizuma, the immunotherapy drug that helped President Carter go from a dire diagnosis to being cancer free didn’t work on Eckery.
“If you have the right genetic profile, it’s an amazing drug,” Eckery said. “I didn’t.”
For a number of health reasons, Eckery was not a good candidate for surgery. A previous skin graft had not gone well at all.
“I got off the dime and arranged my will and trusts,” Eckery said. In all likelihood, the end would come in one to three years.
“I thought, ‘If I weigh too much, I’m going to kill my pallbearers,’” said Eckery, who, shall we say, is a very distinguished, full-figured gentleman. As he did in his crisis communications, Eckery described himself as remaining outwardly calm.
But again, this was not like some of his tougher jobs at all. He could be forgiven, and he forgave himself, for letting his mind go to where we all would land if we suffered a similar fate.
“I hoped for some miracle,” he said.
Finding a miracle drug
What materialized was an idea from one of his doctors in the form of a pep talk. He was told that there were scores of clinical trials for melanoma, maybe more than ever before.
Eckery was enrolled in a study of a cancer drug manufactured by Xencor, Inc., which is based in Monrovia. Xencor’s description of the still unnamed drug tested on Eckery: “Xencor’s bispecific tumor microenvironment (TME) activators seek to more effectively reactivate these tumor-killing T cells by engaging multiple T-cell targets simultaneously. “
The drugs were overseen by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco.
Eckery started treatment in July. He had two treatments in July and two treatments in August. In September he found that his cancer hadn’t progressed from his test in May. The lesions on his skin were less inflamed than they had been. By November, his lymph nodes had shrunk and they couldn’t find any lesions on his skin.
In layman’s terms, Eckery said his immunotherapy trained the body to kill the cancer.
On Jan. 17, Eckery was told he was cancer free.
“There was a lot of crying,” he said. “There is something incredible about realizing you got a literal gift from God.”
Obviously, all cancer cases are different. Some of us know people who died from melanoma and we sincerely wish that the people who were lost to this horrible disease could have had their lives extended as Eckery has. He wishes the same thing.
And he feels responsible to live his life with gratitude for the gift he has received. Even though he spent almost all of 2019 facing his own death, Eckery said he was deeply touched by the kindness of strangers, doctors, nurses, and loved ones.
“I was given a drug that didn’t exist 18 months ago,” he said. “And if I hadn’t been given that drug, I’d be looking at my own death this year or next...That’s a profound thing to happen in your life.
“I have to plan how to earn this gift, to give people hope that there are advances in medicine. That I am literally a miracle because of the work of thousands of people.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
