Forging Community: A Valley Blacksmith’s Story of Overcoming Cancer

Will Perry has Roaring Fork Valley roots dating back to his grandfather traveling by wagon over Taylor Pass above Ashcroft in 1880, bringing some of the first store goods into Aspen.

He grew up on his grandfather’s, and then his parents’ ranch, south of Carbondale, riding horses and working cattle, with a gang of siblings and cousins. “We would herd cattle on a two-day drive from Carbondale to upper Snowmass Creek on the old Highway 82,” he says. “On a horse you would guide the occasional car through the cows and calves, traffic was light, and trips to Aspen were uncommon.” Will graduated college with a degree in geology, and worked as a geologist in Silverton, Colorado and the Bendelmen Mountains, Alaska. After a 35-day climb of Denali in 1978 with his fiancée, and now wife, Judy Fox-Perry, they returned to Carbondale where Will started his custom architectural metal forging business that he ran for the next forty years.

Will and Judy live on their own ranch near Jerome Park west of Carbondale where they raised three children. Will still works in his blacksmith shop on the ranch, and Judy sculpts marble in her adjoining studio. During Covid the couple limited trips into town, and Will missed a few annual checkups. Eventually he made an appointment for an annual checkup in the summer of 2023 with Dr. Chad Knaus at Roaring Fork Family Practice, with no symptoms other than general aging.

“Dr. Knaus took a blood sample for my tests and my PSA came back elevated,” he said. PSA— Prostate Specific Antigen—is a protein produced by both normal and cancerous cells of the prostate gland. A blood sample measuring PSA levels is the gold standard for checking signs of prostate cancer. “With the results that my PSA was in a high range, Dr. Knaus encouraged me to make an appointment for more tests with Dr. Scott Castle at the Rocky Mountain Urology Center at Valley View.”

With the additional tests, cancer was confirmed but detection was early and led to a discussion with Dr. Castle on both surgical and radiation options for treatment. With the decision to pursue the radiation option, Will’s next appointment was with the oncology team at the Calaway-Young Cancer Center at Valley View.

“I met Dr. Peter Rossi in September 2023. He is extremely knowledgeable in this field, empathetic and has a great patient style,” says Will. “Dr. Rossi thought I’d be a good candidate for radiation treatment seeds. He explained all the details of going through the treatment in a detailed discussion with Judy and me. We went over success rates, side effects, the PSA numbers, diet, exercise, and weight control, the biopsy report and Gleason Score, the PET Scan, an initial hormone treatment and the placement of gold marker seeds for exact and effective radiation to the cancer cells.”

The seeds Will received are tiny radioactive pellets used in high-dose brachytherapy, a form of internal radiation therapy for prostate cancer, Dr. Rossi’s specialty.

Treatment began in October 2023 with a hormone shot, and an eight-week waiting period before starting radiation. Will was treated with a 23-day radiation treatment in December 2023 and January 2024, twenty minutes a day, four to five days a week.

Will notes Dr. Rossi and his team were great to work with and acknowledged the entire team including Physician Assistant Matt Stinson and others who helped make the treatment comfortable and caring.

At the end of his treatment, Will received what he describes as “the big blast of radiation” which was carefully controlled and localized to minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Two years later he visits the Calaway-Young Cancer Center every three months, soon to be six months, for a PSA check.

Today, without surgery, Will’s PSA is below one, well within a healthy range and there is no evidence of remaining prostate cancer. Will notes with appreciation the positive changes to the valley that doctors and medical professionals have wrought with developments in science and technology in this twenty-first century. Will sees Valley View and the Calaway-Young Cancer Center in Glenwood Springs as an outstanding example of these positive changes.

These days, Will and Judy continue projects on their ranch, putting up the annual hay crop and spending time with family (six grandchildren). They watch their grandson play high school soccer and their granddaughter run cross-country. With four other grandchildren between 4 and 11, with two of those living in Carbondale, life continues its busy pace.

“What I would want men to know is to keep on track testing your PSA on a regular basis,” says Will. “I value the Calaway-Young Cancer Center. They have great care–not to mention the valet parking, Michael playing piano in the mornings, and the relaxing acupuncture sessions. It’s a very welcoming place.”