Baseball player, cancer survivor to share story

OREM — Rick Bender, a former baseball player and cancer survivor, will share his story at Utah Valley State College of surviving oral cancer caused by chewing tobacco and how the cancer destroyed his jaw and severely damaged his mouth, teeth, tongue, neck and arm muscles.

Bender will speak Wednesday at noon in Centre Stage in the Sorensen Student Center.

Bender played major league baseball for the California Angels and now works with Major League Baseball and local and state health department programs to dispel the myth that spit tobacco is a safe alternative to smoking.

Bender started using spit tobacco at age 12. By 26 he was diagnosed with oral cancer and had lost one-third of his tongue and half of his jaw and was only given two years to live.