The Simple Joy of Living

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About Lars

Lars Wanberg has been a visual artist for over 30 years. He started in front of the camera, learning about photography and storytelling as a model and actor. He gained knowledge of the craft traveling to Europe and Japan, and slowly began to transition behind the camera. He and his wife, Annie, worked as a team: she was art director and stylist, he was photographer and videographer. For a time, they photographed high-end weddings and co-wrote a coffee-table book with Barbara Wallace published through Zingiber Publishing. Their son, Nils, joined the team and helped grow the company shooting commercial projects, corporate messaging, fashion and special events. Nils is now leading the way into the future capturing stories in 3D with his virtual reality company, Storycast, LLC and BeWellXR.

When Lars was 42, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. After failed treatment, he underwent major surgery to remove his bladder, prostate and left kidney. He began to question his mission and his business philosophy, and decided to use his talents to help other cancer patients during their illness. He began telling stories for the University of California, Irvine “No Cancer Campaign.” Overtime, he focused on other nonprofits to tell their stories to educate, increase awareness and raise funds, finding a niche in the rare disease space, an often under-served field of research.

In the subsequent years, his company, Wanberg Media Arts, has helped raise millions of dollars for research through effective storytelling in short film format, interviewing scientists, doctors, patients and their families.

After twelve years cancer free, Lars had a recurrence, this time with metastases to his brain. He joined a clinical trial and underwent radiation. After two years of treatment he was once again cancer free. His remission lasted three years. It returned in April, 2022, this time with a dire diagnosis of leptomeningial metastases to his cerebrospinal fluid effecting his brain and spine. The average life expectancy is 2-4 months at diagnosis, with few treatment options available. After 20 daily treatments of radiation to his brain and spine and hospitalization for “failure to thrive,” he slowly began to recover.

When he was strong enough he started immunotherapy, stopped using his walker, and began to write weekly posts on CaringBridge, a site to keep family and friends up-to-date on his current condition. More than medical information, Lars began writing stories about life from his vantage point as a long-term cancer survivor, with the added burden of what’s considered a terminal illness. He has been writing stories on Substack for over a year now. He has outlived his original prognosis by 2 years and hopes his story is an inspiration for others living with Stage IV cancer.

Lars was recently invited to represent the bladder cancer patient perspective on the steering committee of the Convergent Science Cancer Consortium led by the University of Southern California in partnership with Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Stanford University with a grant by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Watch my son, Erland Wanberg, sing an original song he wrote for me once I completed treatment in Los Angeles and moved to Bend to be near family.

The Simple Joy of Living original song