If you’ve spent any time around Damon, you’ve probably heard him say it.
Never Down. Never Out.
It’s on his hats.
It’s on his bracelets.
It’s how he signs off his videos.
It’s become our family’s rallying cry.
But it didn’t start with cancer. It started decades ago at Priest Lake.
A Childhood Memory
Every summer growing up, Damon and his family packed up and headed to Priest Lake. They rented a cabin, spent long days on the water, and made the kind of memories that become part of your family’s story.
Those vacations became some of Damon’s core childhood memories.
One summer, Damon and his sisters became obsessed with the WWF tag team The Bushwhackers.
If you remember them, you probably remember how goofy they were – their funny walk, their larger-than-life personalities, and the fact that they never took themselves too seriously.
That summer, Damon and his sisters bought matching neon hats and spent their vacation pretending to be the Bushwhackers, laughing their way around Priest Lake.
It was one of those simple childhood memories that always brought a smile when it came up.
Especially Nicole.
A Reminder at Exactly the Right Time
In October 2025, Damon was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer.
Before chemotherapy started, before surgeries, before the trips to Mayo Clinic, Nicole reached back to one of their happiest childhood memories.
She started sending Damon old videos of the Bushwhackers.
She simply wanted to make her brother smile.
And it worked.
At first, it was just something to laugh about.
But before long, one phrase from those old wrestling days kept sticking.
Never Down. Never Out.
It Became Something Bigger
At first, Damon started saying it.
Then the whole family started saying it.
It became the words we leaned on before treatments, after difficult appointments, and during the hardest days.
Eventually, Damon began ending his videos with it.
Then our community embraced it.
In April 2026, two of Damon’s longtime friends from high school, Meggie Clark and Alison Granier, approached us because they wanted to help. They organized a community fundraiser – not because we asked, but because they wanted to bring people together and support our family.
Without us even suggesting it, they asked what color we’d like and surprised us by creating Never Down, Never Out bracelets to help raise funds for Damon’s medical treatments.
Around the same time, Damon had matching hats made.
What started as a childhood memory had become a symbol of hope that our entire community could rally around.
Today, it’s more than a slogan.
It’s the name of this website.
And one day, we hope it will become the name of a nonprofit dedicated to helping families across North Idaho facing colorectal cancer.
What It Means to Damon
People sometimes assume Never Down means pretending everything is okay.
It doesn’t.
There have been difficult days.
Scary days.
Days when treatments are exhausting and the future feels uncertain.
To Damon, Never Down means refusing to let those days define you.
“To me, Never Down means trying to keep a good attitude and not letting the hard days win. It’s not being down on your situation or on life, because even on the worst days, there’s still something good to find.”
And Never Out?
That one carries even more weight.
When Damon was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer, the statistics weren’t encouraging. At the time, his odds of long-term survival were incredibly small.
Many people would have counted him out.
Damon never did.
“Never Out means don’t count me out. The odds don’t get to decide my story. As long as there’s another treatment, another opportunity, another chance, I’m going to keep fighting.”
Today, after being approved for a living liver transplant at Mayo Clinic, those odds have changed dramatically.
Hope has grown.
The fight continues.
And so does the meaning behind those three simple words.
More Than a Motto
Never Down, Never Out isn’t about ignoring reality.
It’s about facing reality with courage.
It’s about choosing hope over fear.
It’s about refusing to let cancer write the final chapter.
And it’s a reminder that no matter what tomorrow brings…
We’re never down.
We’re never out.