Episode 112: Rolling the 230-pound Cancer Sucks Tire – with DeAndre Wilson

DeAndre Wilson is the creator of the Keep Rolling Campaign, a fundraising platform that commemorates his father’s life and helps nonprofits and families battling cancer who need some extra financial assistance. He is currently working on a documentary to tell his father’s story and his story, and describe his health transformation from rolling a 230-pound tractor tire around the city of Evansville, Indiana.

During this episode, DeAndre shares:

• The story behind the tractor tire, and how it became a way to honor his father’s legacy
• How his “roll-arounds” have attracted both positive and negative attention
• How rolling the tire has helped him with his health transformation
• How he uses the attention he gets with the tire to raise cancer funding and awareness

Follow DeAndre, his fundraising campaigns, and learn more about his upcoming documentary with the links down below!

Twitter: @DeAndreDWilson and @keep_rolling812

Instagram: @deandredwilson

LinkedIn: DeAndre Wilson

Facebook: Keep Rolling Campaign

Check out the teaser clip for DeAndre’s upcoming documentary.

We’re also on YouTube! Click here to watch the video of this interview.

Subscribe to the FREE Beyond 6 Seconds newsletter for all the latest news and updates about my podcast!

A full episode transcript is available below.

Carolyn Kiel
Today on Beyond 6 Seconds…

DeAndre Wilson
Never say never. People would ask me, do I plan on rolling the tire with my dad or whatever the case may be. And I would say, absolutely not. It’s too heavy. I would never do that, and look where we’re at today.

Carolyn Kiel
Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories and achievements of everyday people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

I wanted to let you know about something new that’s happening here at the Beyond 6 Seconds podcast. Now you can find videos of my guest interviews on the Beyond 6 Seconds YouTube channel. If you’d like to watch this interview, just go to YouTube and search for Beyond 6 Seconds. You’ll find the video there. Also, while you’re there, please click the red subscribe button under the video and then click the little bell icon so you never miss a video. Thank you so much. And now here’s my interview with DeAndre.

My guest on the show today is DeAndre Wilson. DeAndre is the creator of the Keep Rolling Campaign, a fundraising platform that commemorates his father’s life and helps nonprofits and families battling cancer who needs some extra financial assistance. He is currently working on a documentary to tell his father’s story and his story and describe his health transformation from rolling a 230 pound tractor tire around the city of Evansville, Indiana. DeAndre, welcome to the podcast!

DeAndre Wilson
Thank you. Thank you for having me. That was beautiful. That was really good.

Carolyn Kiel
Well, thank you. And I’m really excited to hear you tell this story because there’s quite a story behind this 230 pound tire.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah.

Carolyn Kiel
Start off by telling me about the tire like where did it come from? And how did it become a part of your life and your father’s life?

DeAndre Wilson
My father brought the tire home one day and you know, I said, what are you gonna do with this thing? It was massive.It was hanging out the back of his truck and he said he was gonna roll it. And of course during this time he was battling stage four Liver cancer and colon cancer. Now of course, he was able to beat the colon cancer. But the liver was just so far gone. There’s just no way from coming back from that. But during his time while he was here, he rolled that tire everywhere. That’s what he did. So after chemo treatment, he would come home, and he’d roll it. He would eat and he would take off. And I would get text messages and phone calls along the way of people saying, Hey, we saw your dad, he looks really good. He’s having fun. He went everywhere. He didn’t let a highway, sidewalk, greenway, he didn’t let anything stop him, and he just went and he literally went all over the city with it. And when he passed away, I you know, had all his belongings including the tire and, you know, I was weighing 240 pounds at the time, and I said, You know what, I’m gonna roll this thing. My first business Turntable that my brother and I started was on pause and I needed something to do in the meantime, and I wanted to get back in shape, lose some weight. And so I used to work out with the tire in the backyard and I would even try to roll it down the street. And for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure it out. You know, the physics behind it, the science behind it, it just didn’t make sense. You know, here’s my father who is dying and figured this out and was moving awfully fast. There are some videos of him rolling the tire and he was moving and I just couldn’t figure it out. And so I just kept trying, I stayed consistent, and eventually I got it. I went a half a block, then a full block, then three blocks, training myself, and eventually built the confidence as well as the muscle to do it. Then I started going around the community myself and then it blew up. I was on news outlet after news outlet and magazines and social media press and during that time I was telling his story and my story. And at this point they’re kind of just one and the same now. But I mean that’s how it all started. It was him wanting to do something positive and wanting to just be in shape and he didn’t want to go without a fight. And that’s one of the messages that we can take away from this. I mean, sure we all know someone who has gone through cancer and battling cancer but the efforts of after chemo coming home and then taking off. It’s amazing.

Carolyn Kiel
That is amazing. And just to give people an idea, when we talk about a 230 pound tire, this is not your regular tire that comes on a car or truck, this is a huge, huge tire.

DeAndre Wilson
It is so so I’m 5′ 10” and you can’t see me behind it.

Carolyn Kiel
Wow.

DeAndre Wilson
So there’s oncoming traffic. I have to kind of peek out and just make sure that there is no child in the street or there is no like serious debris in the way. I sort of be mindful of those things.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, and it says, because you had sent me a picture before, it says something on the side of it, that’s painted, some words there. Is that right?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, yeah. So on both sides, it says cancer sucks. Last month, I had one side completely redone because it started to fade. And then I had the other side updated. So now officially, both sides say cancer sucks. And now it’s kind of it’s better now because normally when I take a picture with someone or you know, someone stops me on the side of the road and wants a picture, I don’t have to turn the tire around. It’s now on both sides.

Carolyn Kiel
So I’m trying to imagine your father and then you rolling this giant tire, you know, down a sidewalk or a highway like, did you ever have any trouble you know, not just moving the giant tire but you know trying to navigate around cars or people, and how did you kind of navigate around that?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, it took time just to keep going. And there was a time where I was nervous, you know, as I was in the street, and here comes a car, and I kind of veer over. But now I’m in between two cars, a parked car and a moving car. So you know, the nerves were kind of up. Now that I have the muscle and the core, you have to keep the tire upright, you have to move it hard enough so that it doesn’t lean. You know, I’m fine now, but it took a while to get there.

Carolyn Kiel
How long did it take from you know, when you first started rolling it and were kind of struggling to figure out the physics and the mechanics of how to move it to actually being able to roll it consistently?

DeAndre Wilson
That part probably took about six months.

Carolyn Kiel
Wow.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, to build the muscle and the stamina and the endurance and the confidence I mean, that’s a package there. So it took a while.

Carolyn Kiel
I imagine it’s physical as well as mental, you mentioned confidence and it’s kind of all that tied together to make it move.

DeAndre Wilson
Absolutely, you have to concentrate. It’s a full body workout. So the harder you push the tire, the faster you have to move. So you have to learn how to pace yourself, you have to learn, okay, so I was straightaway a flat street so I can kind of, I don’t have to go as fast but you know, you have to pay attention because you could be approaching a hill or a slope of some, you know, not a deep slope, but a slope nonetheless, you have to mentally prepare to push it even harder to get up and over or all the way up and back down again. So there is some mental, the brain is getting an exercise. Yeah, there is some mental exercise with this. Absolutely.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, definitely. So let’s see. You mentioned that your father went all over rolling the tire all over the city, really, sidewalks highways anywhere. Where have you been with the tire? Sort of all around the town or beyond that?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, I’ve got all around Evansville for the most part. There are some goals. Nonetheless, the suburbs of Evansville is called Newberg and it’s about a 15 minute drive. And so I plan to roll the tire from Evansville to Newberg. So if in a car you’re going 15 minutes that’s nothing. But since this is a tire, I believe, I looked at Google Maps once, I think it’s going to be a four hour trip there and back?

Carolyn Kiel
Wow,

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah walking, so that’ll be all day. I’ll make it a Facebook event as well so people can tune in but I will probably take off at probably six in the morning and be home probably around 5pm because the good thing about it is a straight shot so I’ll take the right lane. Let cars take the left lane and I have a slow moving passenger sign on my back now. Yes slow moving vehicle sign on my back now. So you can’t miss the sign nor the tire and I’m get after it. It’ll probably my next for my next campaign. We’ll see, we’ll see.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, wow. Are you rolling at least some distance every day or every other day? How frequently?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, so in a week’s time, I will probably roll the tire maybe three or four times, probably five miles, five to eight miles. Just trying to continue that community work and being able to reach different individuals, you know, not everyone sees it, you know, but trying to get as much exposure as I can just to help people with their goals and campaigning and you know, things of that nature just trying to help everyone best that I can because it’s interesting. You know, when I’m on these journeys, I call them roll arounds. Someone always reaches out and will walk with me or roll the tire and will tell me, you know, something going on in their lives. You know, honestly, I’m not a professional and I don’t know how to deal with those things. But it’s good that people want to open up, and that they’re trusting me with their personal information like that. So, you know, I roll it around just to kind of create those relationships and healthy conversations. So, yeah, you know, it’s my work now. So it’s what I do.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, I was wondering what your experiences have been rolling the tire, because obviously, people are seeing you roll it. If you’re doing it three, four times a week, eventually you’re going to the same places, people may see you a couple times.

DeAndre Wilson
Yes.

Carolyn Kiel
Do people stop you and ask you what you’re doing or how do people interact with you when you’re rolling the tire?

DeAndre Wilson
Well, I’ll tell you, I tell you what, you can’t have the good without the bad. You know, when people you know, stop me, a lot of times they want to take my picture, which is fine and ask me, you know, why I’m doing this, and that’s great. You know, I love to talk about it. And then people go into what they’re struggling with and how we can possibly work together. And I’ve also come to learn that if people talk about what they’re going through out loud, they will come to their own conclusion, or their own solution. And that’s also beautiful to see. And my dad also went through this as well, but from rolling this tire, we’ve been pulled over by the police. And he kept rolling, he kept going. And so did I obviously, it helped because of all the media exposure. Now, of course, it shouldn’t have to come to that, but it helped. And so it’s been an interesting journey from that aspect of it. It’s not like I’m doing anything, you know, it’s not like I’m gonna steal a tractor tire. And clearly I’m exercising but, you know, you just explain to the officer what you’re doing and you hope, hope for the best and some officers have been very positive and you know, going okay, well, you know, I just was curious. I never seen it before. And I understand that but then there have been others that have been very disrespectful along my journey and you know, it’s a thing I’ve come to learn that things that are different are we fear, we don’t understand. And that’s okay. The work continues, I haven’t stopped and it’s gonna take a lot to get me to stop. Complaining and crying that it doesn’t make sense and things of that nature isn’t gonna make me stop. rather just ask the question of why and let’s talk about it. But yeah, you know, every day, I keep rolling, get after it. And I love the smiling faces and all the horns that are honked at me and all the community events I’m asked to participate in, so it’s a work in progress.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, yeah. You mentioned that from rolling the giant tire and really getting into that physical and mental shape to be able to do that, that you had your own health transformation. Can you tell me about that?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, absolutely. I started rolling the tire and working out with it when I weighed 240 pounds. Now I lost the 40 pounds just from rolling the tire, because that’s a completely different exercise and I was in 70 and 80 and 90 degree weather. Yeah, rolling it around. So I was able to drop the weight pretty quickly. But I still had you know, the the extra skin from when I used to be, you know, fat. I had some muscle but not a lot. I had a great deal of endurance and, and stamina. But it wasn’t until I got a gym membership at ChamFit studios where I work at currently, that I was able to keep the 40 pounds off and understand how my body really works and understand portion control and things of that nature. So I lost the 40 pounds was at 200 really started to learn the science of my body. And all those things I mentioned before. And I weighed myself here recently. And I was at 196. And then I weighed myself on Monday and I was at 194. So work in progress, and I don’t know I mean, I may, I don’t really have an end goal here. Just pounds just keep shedding. Oh, I’ll probably get to 185 maybe we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, I mean, that’s amazing. And I’m amazed at the, the endurance, the physical endurance of been able to do this so many times a week just over and over, especially in that heat. I mean, I’m, I’m in New Jersey, and it’s August right now, and it’s been pretty hot here. It’s been high 80s 90s and even just me wanting to go out for a walk. I’m like, Oh, it’s too hot! And it’s like, all I’m doing is walking. So now I’m like, oh, maybe I should just go for a walk anyway in the heat!

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah yeah, it helps, you know it definitely helps. Have the sun beaming, that definitely helps. And because it is, you know, I want to be mindful of the weather, I tend to go rolling around in the morning, when it’s slightly cooler. Just coming into the heat, or around maybe four or 5pm when the sun has kind of gone over getting ready to set where it’s not as hot. So I try to stay away from that 12pm to four to five time gap, try to stay away from that, because that’s when the sun is like at its peak and whoo! Try to stay away from it.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Definitely. In addition to the health benefits that you’ve seen, and just having so many interesting interactions, part of this is really you’re trying to raise awareness around cancer and even you know, as we said in your bio, fundraise to help support people who are struggling through it financially.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah

Carolyn Kiel
How have you tied in your work around awareness and outreach for cancer survivors into the rolling of the tire?

DeAndre Wilson
Well, there’s a lot of nonprofits here in Evansville where I live that I have decided to help. My most recent campaign, which was my very first one ever was towards the was for the Darrell Ragland foundation. They bring awareness to pancreatic cancer. And so I did a campaign for them, my very first one. I was very successful. But what I’ve learned is because I’m rolling a tire around, I’m finding that more and more people just want to give to the overall effort. I’ve been told by people in the neighborhood that they’ve never donated to a cause before, they just never felt the need to so I’m reaching an audience that kind of never wanted to donate before and never thought about it or ever donated you know, once or twice their entire life even. So, again, it’s just you know, create those relationships with people but I plan on doing another campaign the start of September for another nonprofit and I’ve kind of opened up the opportunity to help as many nonprofits as I can. I know that that nonprofit work, trying to raise money can be a struggle sometimes. Cancer related nonprofits, you know, get first dibs, of course. But I don’t mind helping. You know, I said, it’s a group effort to where I’ll let the nonprofit know, okay, this is a community effort. This is a team effort. So everyone must have buy in and everyone must work to raise the funds needed. So it’s good to create that collaboration. It’s really good.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah. So how does that collaboration usually work? Do people donate to you to give to charities or do you just inspire them to give to a cause or whatever cause is close to their hearts? How does that usually play out?

DeAndre Wilson
Well actually it’s both of those. It’s getting people to consider donating more and obviously within your means, but just be mindful of that. But what I do on my end is I have a GoFundMe account, and people will donate to me. And then I will then present the funds to the nonprofit. What I’ve also learned is, as I’m rolling around the community, people will just hand me money.

Carolyn Kiel
Wow.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why I had to start carrying a fanny pack. Because people were just handing me money left and right. So I didn’t expect that to happen at all, but they do.

Carolyn Kiel
Interesting.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Carolyn Kiel
Like it’s it’s such a very different thing to see. And really, you know, once they get to hear your story, it really is inspiring.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah.

Carolyn Kiel
The whole story behind it with your health and doing this in memory of your father and the overall message of, you know, really, we can do almost anything that we put our minds and our bodies and our hearts to.

DeAndre Wilson
Absolutely we can. Yeah, definitely.

Carolyn Kiel
And how did you wind up getting media attention? Was there sort of one incident or time that somebody discovered you and then it was picked up? How did the media find out about you?

DeAndre Wilson
I remember I was finally rolling the tire during the day.

Carolyn Kiel
Mm hmm.

DeAndre Wilson
Like I said, I started at night wanting to be alone with the tire and being at one with it and building that confidence. So at this stage, I’m confident now and so I started to roll the tire during the day and I was on one of the Greenway spaces. And you know, the pictures and video and I was reached out to our local Courier & Press. And that video, they did an interview and was on the front page. And then that interview received 100,000 views. And then from there, multiple news outlets just kind of followed. Magazines, other podcasts, other news outlets, you name it.

Carolyn Kiel
And then, how long have you been doing this, I guess from rolling the tire? When did you start doing that?

DeAndre Wilson
Last year. Last year in March.

Carolyn Kiel
Okay. Wow. So let’s see, I guess it’s been about a year and a half or so that you’ve been doing this. And you’ve already brought a lot of great attention to different causes around fundraising and helping to support people with cancer. What other goals do you want to achieve by keeping on rolling the tire?

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, I’m trying, one of my efforts is I want people to get outside more and walk. I say I belong to a gym. And sometimes you know membership can be expensive or you know, out of the means at the moment. I totally understand that. And also understand that what I’m doing is a bit on the extreme side, but at the bare minimum, we could be walking around the block or neighborhood, we could, you know, carry two dumbbells to make it a little difficult or weighted vest. The goal is to get outside to get active 30 minutes a day doing something.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah. I mean, walking is probably one of the most accessible types of exercise for people, you know, because it doesn’t require going to a gym. It doesn’t require a lot of equipment. And as long as you have a place to walk and you know and you’re able to do that and get out for a couple times a week. That’s that’s really great. That makes sense.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, I put a graph on social media. It was a body. And it was a scale. And it showed that if you walked every single day for one year, for 30 minutes, the health benefits and the weight loss alone from just walking. Your endorphins are released each time. You’re taking that fresh air. You know, for me, it’s gaining perspective in the neighborhood. So you know, others may do the same thing.

Carolyn Kiel
Mm hmm.

DeAndre Wilson
Learn about their neighbors, see something they never saw before. Things like that. So, yeah, I’m all for just going on a walk.

Carolyn Kiel
Yeah. And it’s important, especially now, you know, we’re dealing with the COVID crisis and a lot of people are home, you know, most people aren’t going to the gym, they may not have access to their normal ways of exercise. And, you know, some people do need to stay strictly in the houses, but many of us, you know, you can just go for a walk away from people and you can socially distance and do your walk.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You can.

Carolyn Kiel
I think I mentioned in your bio that you were thinking of doing a documentary?

DeAndre Wilson
Yes. I’ll tell you right now, if anyone that’s listening to this is saying about doing a documentary, think again. Those are very stressful. My director and I, we sat down and created a timeline. And then you know, being young and not knowing what to expect along the way. For example, I won two awards recently.

Carolyn Kiel
Great!

DeAndre Wilson
Thank you, thank you. And we didn’t account for anything like that ever happening. So we had to kind of push our timeline back to then go get that footage, and then pick up where we left off. And so just along the way you think you can kind of map out everything. But there’s so much that can just randomly pop up. And it has been just that. Appearances here, community events there, got to be over here. Things that we didn’t account for, and time. You know, time is everything. So we’re trying to cram all of this in and a lot of it’s just taking place. Just because of the awareness and the outreach has taken place, and it is overwhelming, but we’ve got a lot done so far. And in fact, I just released the first teaser on social media.

Carolyn Kiel
Oh that’s great.

DeAndre Wilson
Oh yeah, yeah.

Carolyn Kiel
I definitely want to add a link to that, to your social media so people can see it.

DeAndre Wilson
Definitely, definitely. The Keep Rolling Campaign page on Twitter. The teaser is the pinned tweet.

Carolyn Kiel
Very good. Okay, so yeah, we’ll definitely add a link to your Twitter account and direct people to look at the pinned tweet to see that teaser. And then, yeah, who knows, maybe by the time this episode comes out in a couple weeks, you may have even more information up there. So that is really great.

DeAndre Wilson
Yeah, thank you.

Carolyn Kiel
Wow, in some ways it’s a good problem to have because your story is continuing to evolve.

DeAndre Wilson
Yes.

Carolyn Kiel
Which I guess makes it difficult to document it when your story is still unfolding.

DeAndre Wilson
yes, you’re absolutely right, it is still right before my very eyes. You know, one day I think I have it and then I wake up and then something else has happened. Now we got to make time to capture that. So yeah,

Carolyn Kiel
Well that’s fantastic. DeAndre, how can people get in touch with you or what’s the best way for them to reach you if they just want to learn more about what you’re doing and you know, your documentary or any other projects that you might be working on?

DeAndre Wilson
Absolutely. So the neat thing with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, my default picture is me standing next to the tire. And it’s DeAndreDWilson across the board. And when you see the large tractor tire and me, you’ll know it’s like, you know, a landmark. You know, it’s like, you can’t miss it. You can’t miss it. But yeah, Instagram, Twitter, DeAndreDWilson LinkedIn, Facebook, DeAndre Wilson. Look for the large tire. I’m working on a YouTube channel as well. That’s it’s in the works as well. But right now, I’ve kind of put it on pause because I want this documentary to be it just all just just fantastic. I want to be special, showcase everything because I actually have a goal to enter the documentary into several film festivals.

Carolyn Kiel
Wow, that is awesome. Good luck with your continued work with your documentary and I will add links to your social media profiles in the show notes so that people can connect with you on their their social media platform of choice whichever way that they like to consume their social media content. DeAndre, thank you so much for being my guest today. You’re working on so many amazing projects, and congratulations on your health transformation and your awards and all the great work that you’re doing.

DeAndre Wilson
Thank you.

Carolyn Kiel
Is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

DeAndre Wilson
I would like to leave the listeners with Never Say Never. Real quick. People would ask me, do I plan on rolling the tire with my dad or whatever the case may be? And I would say absolutely not. It’s too heavy. I would never do that and look where we’re at today.

Carolyn Kiel
Right. That’s amazing. Well, it really is inspiration for anybody who has a big goal in front of them and maybe they don’t know where to start or they’re feeling discouraged because they’re still at the beginning or hitting a difficult point. But you are such an amazing example of how to push through that and how you really can achieve things that you never thought you could achieve just by taking it day to day.

DeAndre Wilson
Absolutely.

Carolyn Kiel
Thank you so much DeAndre for being a guest on my show.

DeAndre Wilson
Well, thank you for having me.

Carolyn Kiel
Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help us spread the word about this podcast, share it with a friend. Give us a shout out on your social media. Or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of our episodes on our website and sign up for our free newsletter at www.Beyond6Seconds.com. Until next time!