It was a routine Tuesday morning in February 2016. While Charlie Edmondson was shaving, he felt a lump on his jawline, near his ear. The lump turned out to be a serious form of invasive cancer: Stage 2 carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma, which is a cancer of the parotid, or salivary, gland.

“If it weren’t for CrossFit, I’d be dead,” says Edmondson. This is his incredible story of how CrossFit helped him to get his life back!