Travis Snyder, founder of The Color Run, has passed away. He was 45 years old.
PEOPLE confirmed the entrepreneur’s death on Sunday after a statement was released on his Instagram page in which he described how he would like to be remembered. In his posthumous message, Snyder reflected on his diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia in 2015.
“Well, a long illness at least gives me time to think about what I’d like to include in this damn thing. Instead of it being empty or having some statements about how I died, a few life details and some confessions. I’d rather have something write from the heart,” he wrote, noting that he wanted people to remember him as a “warrior.”
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“Please don’t say I ‘lost my battle with cancer’, I lived and fought and was blessed with eight years of life after a devastating diagnosis. In one of my worst moments I told my friend I was sorry they had to see me . Her response was quick and direct, ‘All I ever saw when I looked at you was a warrior.’ That’s how I’d like to be remembered,” he continued.
Synder wrote that while his “life was never easy,” so many “good times” resulted from his three sons, [Hank, Miles and Luke]and his wife Heidi.
Travis Snyder and Jason Momoa.
Travis Snyder/Instagram
“The only thing I’ve ever come to is that we suffer to soften us, care more, love more and try to lift each other up. The bonds of relationships are the only things that will last beyond this life,” he wrote.
Snyder expressed that he was “happy” to have fulfilled his dreams and hoped to have created “some goodness” along the way. He concluded his message by asking his followers to share memories of their time together so his sons would “get to know the whole of me.”
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PEOPLE spoke with Snyder last year when he and Aquaman star Jason Momoa has teamed up to encourage people to join the bone marrow donor registry.
“We met by chance and through mutual friends after my first battle with cancer in 2015,” Snyder recalled of his first meeting with the actor. “I think after treatment I was very focused on living with purpose every day and my heart was open and Jason wasn’t as busy then and lives with such a big heart of giving and aloha, we just connected right away.”
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Momoa, 44, told PEOPLE he was interested in raising awareness for the organization to help Snyder, whom he called his “friend.”
“I didn’t know a lot about all the different types of cancer and I didn’t have anyone in my family with it, and Travis was really my first experience,” he said at the time. “And something like this, absolutely, I can donate my time and platform. I just want to be able to help… It just tears me up that I can’t save my friend.”
In a statement sent to PEOPLE, Be the Match remembered Snyder as a “passionate advocate” for the donor registry.
“He was selfless in his efforts. He realized that thousands of individuals are looking for potential blood stem cell donors every year. He wanted to spread the word far and wide that each of us carries within us a potential cure for blood cancer,” the statement said.
“He inspired thousands of people to join the Be the Match registry and we know his efforts will help more patients in the future get a second chance at life. He was a warrior and his life made a difference.”
In honor of Snyder, Be the Match invites people to join the registry or make a monetary donation through a page dedicated to him on its website.
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Source: HIS Education