Article published Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Now cancer free, Perrysburg woman raises funds for research
Louann Cummings of Perrysburg organized a combination 5-K run and motorcycle ride to raise $100,000 for cancer research.
(
THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH
)
Louann Cummings wonders if the reason so few dollars are spent on lung cancer research is that so few lung cancer patients are alive to fight for it.
The Perrysburg woman is one of the lucky ones - the malignant spot on her right lung was discovered quite by accident and early enough to be treated. She is now cancer-free and committed to doing what she says too few people are doing: raising money for lung cancer research.
"Lung cancer has no symptoms," she said, explaining that her own cancer was discovered early in 2004 after she injured her foot while running. "There are very limited research dollars spent on the disease, be it in diagnostic, preventative, or palliative care, for us to determine what are the symptoms. We don't know because not enough research has been done."
A business professor at the University of Findlay, Ms. Cummings, 56, said she had continued running with her foot injury before finally stopping to see the campus doctor for an exam and X-ray. When that failed to uncover a problem, she went to Blanchard Valley Hospital for a bone scan.
She ended up getting a full body scan, which revealed the malignant spot on her lung. A third of her right lung was later removed in surgery, and she underwent eight weeks of chemotherapy.
Now she is working to raise $100,000 for lung cancer research. Her second major fund-raiser, the Free to Breathe Rumble Run, is set for Aug. 29 in Perrysburg.
The event includes a motorcyle ride beginning at 10 a.m. from Signature Harley-Davidson, a 5K run and walk and 1-mile walk beginning at 11 a.m. from Perrysburg Junior High School, and a post-run celebration party in Signature's parking lot that includes food, soft drinks, beer, and the classic rock band, Suburban Legend, of which Ms. Cummings' husband, Paul, is a member. Even supporters who don't run, walk, or ride can attend the parking lot party for $15.
Ms. Cummings' friend and running partner, Robin Laird, has no doubt she will reach her ambitious goal.
"She's got a passion and she's got an unbelievable work ethic so I have no doubt she can raise $100,000," she said. "I don't sleep very much. She sleeps less than I do, and she has such a strong support system in place. Her network is huge."
Ms. Cummings, who has been healthy all her life, is among the 10 percent to 15 percent of lung cancer patients who never smoked cigarettes.
It blows her away to know that lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney, and melanoma cancers combined. And it bothers her that many people think of lung cancer as a disease that sufferers bring on themselves.
"It took me a couple of years to really wear this survivor's skin. I don't like the 'Oh, you poor thing,' but the more I researched, the more I learned about the insidiousness of this disease, the stigma of this disease," she said. "I just got an e-mail from a man whose wife died of lung cancer, and when she died he said he wouldn't even tell people she died of lung cancer because people would say she brought it on herself. It broke my heart."
Ms. Cummings, the mother of four adult children, continues to run about five mornings a week with Ms. Laird and other women in what they refer to as their therapy group. Whether they run five miles or 20, Ms. Cummings said, they talk nonstop.
"It is relief and therapy and camaraderie and community and good for you on the side," she said.
This is the first August since she was diagnosed in 2004 that she does not have to see her oncologist for a six-month check-up.
"I'm considered like nothing ever happened to me. Besides the scar on my back you would never know," Ms. Cummings said, adding, "I've just been so ticked off about what this disease is about. I can speak about it and not a lot of people can speak because they're gone. There are just not advocates out there, and I want that changed."
For information about the Free to Breathe Rumble Run, go to freetobreathe.com and click on the Toledo race.
Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-724-6129. Permanent Link
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