BEATING THE ODDS
Leominster runner reflects back on cancer and the life he built after
Jim Hohman was riding high after his Boston Marathon finish in April 1986 only to have his world come crashing down six months later.
The city resident couldn’t shake a bad cough that October and when he went to get it checked out, his doctor decided to do a quick physical after getting him some medicine for the cough.
“This saved my life,” Hohman said. “One testicle was bigger than the other, but I had no pain. He had me immediately go to Burbank Hospital on a Saturday where I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.”
Things moved quickly after that. Hohman had surgery that Monday to remove the testicle and then saw an oncologist for monthly blood tests to check if the cancer had spread.
“After the first surgery, I had stomach surgery to see if the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes,” he said. “Luckily it hadn’t, but a few months later after periodic monthly x rays, it was discovered that the cancer I had spread to my lungs. It was an aggressive form of testicular cancer.”
That news brought him to Dana-farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the same city where he had completed the world-renowned marathon in four hours and five minutes. There he began chemotherapy, which would last for five months.
“I would be at Dana Farber for one week and off two weeks, getting treatment at Burbank Hospital on those off weeks,” Hohman said.
One day in April of 1997 when he was at Dana Farber getting treatment, he watched the Boston Marathon on TV.
“I asked the doctor if I could run the marathon again,” Hohman said. “He said yes, but it would be
difficult as they would have to remove part of my lung after the chemo treatment was done to make sure the cancer did not come back.”
Undeterred, Hohman began “training really hard” in the fall of 1987 with a goal to beat his previous time — and he did. He crossed the finish line of the 1988 Boston Marathon at exactly the four-hour mark, close to a year after he finished chemo, and couldn’t have been more thrilled about it.
“I was so happy,” he said. “I had trained harder that time and worked harder. It felt really good.”
He continued to have blood work and testing for five years to make sure the cancer did not come back. It didn’t, and after that period of time he was “considered cure.” He had been told he may not be able to father a child as chemo dilutes sperm count but once again, Hohman defied the odds and in December of 1990 his daughter Meredith was born.
“[It] was the happiest day of my life,” he said of the joyful occasion, “especially not knowing if I could ever have a child.”
Hohman said his now ex-wife decided to move to another state when their daughter was one, so he raised her by himself. He didn’t have family help and said that while being a single parent, “was a challenge, we always kept moving.”
Boasting like any proud parent would do, Hohman said that his daughter “is very smart” and was third in her class at St. Bernard’s High School out of 130 students.
“She graduated from Bentley University with all As with Summa Cum Laude with a degree in marketing and was a competitive dancer,” he said. “She is now a nurse in Denver and was ranked number one out of 285 in her nursing school and is studying to be a nurse practitioner.”
She gave birth to his granddaughter Sophia last May, a momentous occasion that Hohman dubbed “the second happiest day of my life.”
“I feel so blessed in life,” he said. “My daughter and my granddaughter have been the best part of my life.”
Hohman goes out to Colorado to visit them every three or four months, with the next trip coming up soon. He said that his daughter has lovingly chastised him for “posting too many pictures” of his now 11-month- old adorable granddaughter, as if that’s even possible.
His fortuitous experiences led him to live a full life that has involved a lot of service to others. Hohman is on five nonprofit boards, including a board member of the local Salvation Army for 40 years, board member of the Montachusett Area Rotary Club for 40 years, treasurer for Sundial senior housing in Fitchburg for three years, and 40 years as a board member with TLC
Trust, a nonprofit out of Ashburnham that he said, “helps special needs children.”
He has also been the Leominster Community Branch YMCA board chair for 35 years, which he said is his “main passion.”
“I have given out over 1,000 YMCA sweatshirts over the last nine years,” he said.
A native of Pittsburgh, Hohman moved to Fitchburg in 1981. He has lived in the apartments by the Leominster YMCA for the last few years, which comes in handy as he is at the gym every day.
His disciplined schedule runs like clockwork. Hohman gets up at 3:30 a.m., hits Dunkin’ for a box of joe, and arrives at the gym for the 5:15 a.m. spin class he teaches four or five times a week.
“I got to bed at like 7, 7:30,” he said with a chuckle.
He also works out consistently and has become quite close with the gym regulars.
“It’s the people,” he said when asked what he enjoys most about his time at the Y. “We do goat hikes, go out to breakfast and dinner. The camaraderie of the morning group is amazing. I have made friends for life.”
Hohman acknowledges that he has been abundantly blessed in life and is incredibly grateful that he was able to overcome cancer and come back stronger than ever.
“I have a pretty cool life story with a very happy ending. Everything has been really good. I am so fortunate.”