Fresno veteran inspired a PBR ‘Buck Cancer’ movement. A bull was renamed in her memory
Mary Apper of Fresno once pulled a stranger out of a crashed car on her way to a chemotherapy appointment.
That’s emblematic of who the retired U.S. Navy veteran was, her parents said: A compassionate woman who put others first, even when she was suffering.
Apper’s caring spirit was also evident to fellow Professional Bull Riders fans, who supported Apper through a tough battle with cancer by starting a “Buck Cancer” campaign, renaming a top bull after her, and renaming one of its bull calves “Apper’s Legacy” in her memory.
Apper died of cancer Jan. 14 at her family’s Fresno home. She was 39 years old.
“Mary was just one of those people blessed to shine a bit brighter ... some of us are emotional magnets – their hearts are a little bigger and beat a little harder, and Mary was one of those people,” PBR spokesman Andrew Giangola told The Bee.
Bulls named after PBR super fan from Fresno
Many PBR fans learned of Apper in 2019, when a bull stock contractor who survived cancer decided to change one of his bull’s name from Mind Freak to Apper’s Mind Freak to lift her spirits. PBR reported Apper admitted to having a “bull crush” with the bovine she formed a bond with during a PBR tour experience in Ohio.
Over the past couple years, PBR fans across the country were reminded of Apper each time Apper’s Mind Freak appeared on national television trying to buck off competing cowboys.
Around the time the bull was renamed, another PBR fan and friend started a campaign in 2019 encouraging people to post “Buck Cancer” signs on social media to further encourage Apper in her cancer fight.
Later that year, Apper gained more admirers when she gave her Navy retirement flag to a fellow PBR fan with cerebral palsy after his treasured American flag, signed by many bull riders, tragically blew out of a truck window. Apper’s flag was presented to Tony Stephney during his 30th birthday celebration at a PBR event in Anaheim.
“He’s sad and points to the sky and knows she’s in heaven,” said Stephney’s mother, Sonni Nevarez. Her son doesn’t talk or walk because of cerebral palsy.
“She was such a fighter and she had such a caring heart,” Nevarez said of Apper. “She would help anyone. When they had the fires in Fresno (County) she was helping evacuate animals and helping people during a time that she was still so sick and in so much pain.”
Afghanistan War veteran served others in many ways
Apper did a lot in her 39 years. She was a damage control officer in the Navy who fought in the Afghanistan War on an Army assignment. Her service included training correctional officers in Afghanistan, going on patrols, and training military personnel in survival skills, her parents said.
“It was not about taking life, but saving life,” her mother Liza Apper said of her daughter’s motivation to join the Navy.
Much of her time in the Navy was spent aboard missile destroyer USS Chafee. Her parents said that ship’s assignments included fighting piracy, targeting terrorists in Somalia, and standing ready to protect the U.S. off the coast of North Korea.
Apper was decorated for her service from 2006 to 2016 until her medical retirement.
PBR planned to honor Apper in-person aboard the USS Lexington last fall during a Cowboys for a Cause charitable event, but she was hospitalized at that time and unable to attend.
Her parents said a head oncologist and surgeon who treated Apper told them their daughter’s rare cancer, diagnosed in 2017, was caused from her time in Afghanistan, breathing toxic fumes from U.S. military burn pits. Her parents said she was denied gas masks.
Apper developed several tumors from her cancer, ampullary duodenal adenocarcinoma.
As a girl, she earned Girl Scouts’ top Gold Award, was a wrangler aide for Girl Scout Camp El-O-Win at Shaver Lake, served as an explorer with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office Explorer Program, and started college courses at Fresno City College at age 16. Her studies, then focused on criminology, continued at Fresno State.
She grew up volunteering alongside her parents, co-directors of the St. Benedict Catholic Worker house in Fresno, serving free food to those in need, and going on mission trips with Fresno’s St. Paul Catholic Newman parish to help people in Mexico, Chicago and Oakland.
In recent years, she volunteered at BraveHearts, teaching fellow veterans how to ride horses.
“She was a lover of life,” her mother said, “a lover of animals, and really was an advocate for the underdog.”
Apper spent her final days at home in hospice care, being cared for by her family. Liza Apper is also a grief counselor.
“Grief is a wonderful teacher,” Liza Apper said. “Your life is forever changed. It will take you places that will enrich your life and make you more capable of living because you’ve been loved. You’ve been loved by an incredible person.”
Mary Apper
Born: April 8, 1981
Died: Jan. 14, 2021
Residence: Fresno
Survivors: Parents Bryan and Liza Apper, and sisters Meghan and Francesca Apper.
Services: 10 a.m. Oct. 4 at St. Anthony’s Chapel at St. Peter’s Cemetery, 264 N. Blythe Ave., Fresno. Oct. 4 is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Apper’s favorite saint, her parents said.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 3:10 PM.
