This is the third slide of the Opening Keynote from Atlassian’s Summit this week.  Amidst all the celebration of success, product and partner announcements, and just about a windfall of information it was a nice gesture to spend a minute with Atlassian’s first US employee, President Jeffrey Walker, who could not be at the event, having just received his chemotherapy a few days earlier.

Other than an Atlassian, Jeffrey is also a hacker artist and musician. And Cancer Dude.  His words, not mine.  He wrote them two years ago:

In preparation for this upcoming surgery, I’ll be working out every single day. I’ll be leaving work at a reasonable hour. I need to point my Type-A personality at Atlassian at something more important right now.”

I am Cancer Dude and I am going to kick it’s ass.

In March Jeffrey dropped a bomb: his cancer was back, bigger and uglier than ever before.  I don’t want to repeat the story, here’s my wrap-up, and his own post: Living with Cancer in Silicon Valley.

Today Jeffrey’s back online: Living with Cancer in Silicon Valley II: Survival Tips from a Hardened Cancer Dude.  It’s a must-read.  There’s no excuse not to find the time to read it.   His Seven Survival Tips are a testament of strong will, the kick-ass attitude that makes him invincible, and gives strength to many others.  Literally.

This time around the battle took more focus than ever before, so Jeffrey took a 6-month leave from Atlassian.  But he doesn’t rest.  Between two chemo treatments he played guitar at the recent Stanford University Relay for Life:

Now for the important part: he has 3.5 weeks left until surgery.  He is offering to play (free) at a local benefit in the San Francisco Bay Area.  If you need a musician who can identify with your cause, or just know of a benefit event, ping me below in comments or via the contact form.

Focus on the positive. Tell cancer to “Piss off”

(Cross-posted from CloudAve)