Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 717 is my conversation with Taylor Sharp and John Zimmerman, the founders of Casting for Hope. Their nonprofit financially and emotionally assists women and families facing a gynecological cancer diagnosis, and it started from the hardest place imaginable — the loss of Taylor's mother to ovarian cancer. What began as a single high school fly fishing tournament has grown, ten years on, into an organization that has raised more than a million dollars and built both a competitive and a retreat program.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · Press play in the player above to watch.
Casting for Hope is a North Carolina nonprofit founded by Taylor Sharp and John Zimmerman that financially and emotionally assists women and families facing a gynecological cancer diagnosis. It began as a single high school fly fishing tournament and, ten years later, has raised more than a million dollars and runs both competitive and retreat programs that use fly fishing as a vehicle for healing and support.
Taylor Sharp is the founder of Casting for Hope, which he started as a high school senior in memory of his mother, who died of ovarian cancer. John Zimmerman was Taylor's high school English teacher and an experienced fly fisherman who introduced Taylor to the sport and helped him launch the organization. The two have built and run Casting for Hope together for more than ten years.
It began when Taylor Sharp, then a high school senior, and his English teacher John Zimmerman held a fly fishing tournament to raise money for a cancer clinic in Asheville, North Carolina. The goal was to fund financial assistance for women like Taylor's mother who were missing cancer treatment appointments because of money. Neither expected it to become a lasting nonprofit.
Taylor Sharp got into fly fishing during his mother's final battle with cancer and found it wonderfully regenerative — the focus and technicality of the sport gave him solitude and pulled him out of his circumstances. That experience became the heart of the mission, so Casting for Hope uses fly fishing as a vehicle for healing for the women and families it serves, not only as a way to raise money.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 717 with Taylor Sharp and John Zimmerman of Casting for Hope is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
I came into this one knowing it was going to be emotional, and it was. Taylor and John built something real out of a tragedy, and they did it through fly fishing — the same thing that gets so many of us through hard times. The origin story alone is worth the hour: a high school senior and his English teacher holding a tournament to help women sitting in the chemo chairs next to Taylor's mom. I wanted them to tell it in full, because what they have built since is remarkable.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page to hear the full story.
Taylor's mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when he was eleven, and during her last battle in his junior year of high school, he leaned hard into fly fishing — introduced to it by his English teacher, John Zimmerman. Sitting in the infusion rooms, they saw women missing appointments because of money. So a high school senior and his teacher held a fly fishing tournament to raise funds for an Asheville, North Carolina cancer clinic. Listen to how that first event came together.
Taylor describes how getting into the streams of North Carolina during his mother's illness was wonderfully regenerative — the technicality of fly fishing pulled him out of his circumstances and gave him solitude. That experience is why the organization uses fishing as its vehicle for healing, not just fundraising. It is a powerful idea, and it runs through everything they do. Hear Taylor explain it in his own words in the episode.
Ten years in, the organization is far bigger than that first tournament. John and Taylor walk through both sides of what they have built: a competitive program and a retreat program for women and families navigating a gynecological cancer diagnosis. They also explain how underfunded this category of cancer is, and why direct financial and emotional assistance matters so much. Watch the YouTube player above for the full picture of the mission.
Taylor was a senior headed to UNC Chapel Hill and never imagined a second tournament, let alone a million dollars raised. He and John credit a fleet of volunteers and a team that grew with the mission. The way the two of them — former student and teacher — describe ten years of building this together is the part of the conversation that stuck with me most. Listen to how they did it.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
The day after this conversation, what I kept thinking about was how a teenager turned the worst thing that ever happened to him into help for strangers. Taylor channeled grief into the stream and then into a mission, and John walked beside him the whole way.
Casting for Hope is proof that fishing is bigger than fishing. For these guys it is a way to give women and families a little solitude, a little dignity, and real financial help at the worst moment of their lives.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 717 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Taylor Sharp · John Zimmerman · Casting for Hope · Asheville, North Carolina · UNC Chapel Hill · gynecological and ovarian cancer support
Taylor Sharp and John Zimmerman are the founders of Casting for Hope, a North Carolina nonprofit that financially and emotionally assists women and families facing a gynecological cancer diagnosis. The organization grew out of a high school fly fishing tournament Taylor held with his English teacher, John Zimmerman, in memory of his mother, who died of ovarian cancer. Ten years on, Casting for Hope has raised more than a million dollars and runs both competitive and retreat programs, using fly fishing as a vehicle for healing and direct support.
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