Singer who lost his jaw to cancer to perform in Iowa City and on Courage Ride

Everyone has their challenges in life.

Charlie Lustman experienced his in the form of a rare cancer that he transformed into the springboard for his life's mission.

“It actually is an opportunity to live in the moment like you've never lived before,” Lustman, 46, says of his diagnosis and survival of osteosarcoma.

A recording artist, Lustman lost his upper jaw to cancer, but that hasn't stopped him from singing.

“Cancer came to the right guy,” he says during a telephone interview from his home in Maui, Hawaii, just hours before hopping on a plane to Iowa. “What doesn't kill you makes you sing better.”

Lustman will be singing at several venues in Iowa over the next few days, including performances Saturday, Aug. 27, on the Courage Ride and at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City.

The ride, which began in 2005, commemorates the life of Seth Bailey of Kalona, who died in 2003 at age 25 after being diagnosed with soft-tissue synovial sarcoma.

Lustman says he is bringing his guitar on the bike ride, which starts at the Iowa Mennonite School near Kalona with registration beginning at 6 a.m.

“I'm very excited about this ride,” he says, adding that he also will have a private performance for Bailey's family.

Lustman received a sponsorship from a pharmaceutical company for a 10-city campaign that begins in Iowa.

The Picasso3 clinical trial is researching sarcoma cancer treatments.

Lustman says he did his own research after his cancer diagnosis at age 40. In consultation with his doctor, he used holistic, or alternative, therapies such as wheat grass and acupressure in addition to chemotherapy and other conventional treatments.

“I have to chart my own course,” he says. “Learn everything there is to learn about what you've got and go forward with what you feel is comfortable for you. You're not a statistic. You're a completely unique human. That's what I share with everyone with my music.”

He defied doctors' predictions by fathering a son after his cancer treatment, in addition to one daughter he and his wife had before his diagnosis and one born during his treatment.

Family has helped him through difficult times, including thoughts of his father, a Holocaust survivor.

“He ate soup for four years,”  Lustman says of his father. “I've had an easy life. This man survived four years with a machine gun to his head. If he can get through that, I can get through this.”

Lustman's concert at Riverside Theatre, which begins at 7 p.m., is free, with donations going to the University of Iowa's Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.

He also will perform at Hope Lodge in Iowa City and has stops scheduled in Des Moines.

The Riverside production will include excerpts from his one-man pop operetta, “Made Me Nuclear,” a reference to his cancer procedures.

Lustman says his songs are not just for cancer survivors.

“Any stress for people makes you feel terrible,” he says. “I think it's all equal.”

For more about Lustman, see his website at: www.mademenuclear.com

For information about the Courage Ride, see:

www.courageride.org