FROM CHEMO TO COMRADES
Breast cancer survivor goes for one of the world’s most gruelling ultra-marathons
THE Comrades Marathon, one of the most gruelling ultra-marathons in the world makes a return on 28 August with the “Down Run”, a 90km run from Pietermaritzburg with the finish at the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, one of the venues for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the physical race did not take place in 2020 as well as 2021. As has been the case over the years, there is going to be a considerable amount of runners from Zimbabwe at this year’s Comrades. One of those that will be running the Comrades is Lauren Shenk who is taking on the challenge for the third time.
What makes her third run so special is that the mother of two has just recovered from breast cancer, which had her down for months as she underwent treatment in the form of chemotherapy and radiation in South Africa as well as locally. Shenk, a nursery school teacher from Bulawayo’s Hillside suburb ran the Comrades in 2017 and 2018. Her entry into this year’s race was not by choice. Since she had spent close to a year battling against a dreaded disease, with her last treatment being in May, taking on one of the world’s most gruelling races was the last thing on her mind.
Her employer, who happens to be her friend as well as running partner Debbie King took the initiative to sign them up for the Comrades. This was shortly after Shenk had just finished her medication in May.
“I didn’t decide that, my running partner Debbie King who has been by my side through absolutely everything, she has been unbelievable, we have been running together for many years and she decided that this was something that we needed to do and she signed me up and sent me a message saying ‘guess what Lauren, we are running Comrades’. In May, just after my treatment, she decided that this is something that we should do,’’ remarked Shenk.
Her initial reaction was negative but with her father Gary Smith also equating her battle against cancer to Comrades, Shenk has warmed up to the idea and is preparing hard for the race.
“I was a little bit in denial and said there is absolutely no ways, I’ve spent the last year of my life either on a hospital bed, lying on my bed or in a chemo chair, there is no energy, there is no running, we haven’t run for a very long time and I definitely didn’t think it was something that we were able to do. I was actually very happy with two, originally I would have never run another one, but with Debbie signing me up and with my dad likening this whole journey to Comrades I think it was a necessary thing for me to do just as a rounding up and a completion of this last year that I’ve been on. I think this will be the last Comrades but definitely not the end of running,” said Shenk.
Her preparations started off slowly with a 5km run, which she recalls she actually walked through most of it but that has since changed with the longest distance she has done being 50km. With great assistance from a United States-based trainer, Shenk and her running partners are gearing up for the race. She is heading to the Comrades with King and Lindsay Doolabh. The trio will be running in pink to raise awareness.
“My first run was 5km and I think I walked most of the 5km. We are actually under a trainer from the United States of America, so he is very aware of the situation that I am in and he is giving us a training programme to be able to do Comrades but more than that, the only way that I am able to is by God, he has just put his hands on me and has helped me in this, every run that we do, we pray, we always pray and I just feel that God has been with me every single step of the day and we have been doing the training, we are making sure that we are eating properly and we are right on track to run it. The longest run that I’ve had is 50km,’’ she said.
On her fine tuning Shenk said: “It’s very intense training, it is a lot of running and you have to be pretty dedicated to do it, we do a lot of early morning runs, often we are on the road just after four o’clock in the morning, run a lot in the dark and it has progressed very quickly. This programme we are on is slowly increasing but the trainer that we are with, he does a lot of heart rate, does a lot of analysing the runs that we do to see how he can push us to the maximum. He pushed the distance a lot quicker and then he is trying to maintain us there, especially when we first started, a few body niggles, a lot of tiredness but with making sure that we are eating properly, making sure that we were well hydrated and just sticking to the programme, we’ve managed to get to this point where we are now so it’s been a lot of hours, a lot of time on the road, again a lot of support from people because we need lots of water stops and we get friends that stop along the way and a lot of support. It’s been tough, but we are ready. We probably run five days a week and how we do it we normally have a very intense run and then we have a recovery run but pretty much every day.”
Reflecting on that period when she was diagnosed with cancer, Shenk narrated how she found a lump on her chest, which bothered her and after going through the necessary medical tests, it was confirmed that she had stage three breast cancer in August 2021.
“I had actually found a lump in my chest, I was just really concerned about it, went to doctors who sent me for ultrasound and it was suspicious. So, I was then sent to South Africa to go for biopsies. Went for biopsies, ultrasounds, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mammograms and then on the 19th of August, they confirmed that I did have cancer. From there, I was sent to oncologists, radiologists, all kinds of doctors’ appointments in South Africa. They decided that I needed to have surgery, so I had lumpectomy in September, which is the removal of tumour that I had as well as lymph nodes to see if the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. When the results had come in from that, it was stage three hormonal positive cancer,’’ Shenk recalled.
“I was under an excellent group of doctors in South Africa, I was referred to an oncologist, they did a treatment programme for me which included six rounds of chemotherapy, which I was having on a three-weekly cycle, which started in November, went through six rounds of chemotherapy followed by 30 rounds of radiation and I have just completed all of that in the middle of May,’’ she added.
Going for treatment to South Africa meant she was in and out of the country, which disturbed the lives of her children, a girl aged 18 and 13-year-old son.
“A lot of backwards and forth, it was very disruptive for my children because they were in school but I’ve had such an incredible support system, from friends, from family, so most of my treatment I had done in South Africa, I would go, have the chemotherapy and come back recover here at home and then the last three chemotherapies I did get all my medication from South Africa for my oncologist here, so I had the last three chemotherapies here, but my radiation it was Monday to Friday for six weeks solid so I was in South Africa for two months for that,’’ she said.
Her battle with cancer was devastating for Shenk but she believes that this experience has reaffirmed her faith in the Almighty.
“It’s a very tough road that you go down, physically chemotherapy is the worst ((thing) ever in my life I have experienced, it is such a debilitating thing. A lot of hard times but looking on everything, it’s such a weird thing to say but I wouldn’t change anything because it’s put me on such a different path. Such a terrible thing that I went through has put me on a path to my best life.
“Through all of this, God has just held me in his hand. They often say God has you in the palm of his hands, how I really felt it for me it’s because at such a dark time, God had me like that. Looking back now, I definitely had him by my side. Even though it was such an awful time, he put so many in my life that were surrounding me, leading me, guiding me, knowing that his presence was always there. So, terrible, but I had him with me so I managed to get through this journey,’’ she reflected.
One of the things which carried Shenk through her battle was that she had medical aid to assist her with the treatment.
“Medical aid was an absolute miracle, one year before I was diagnosed I had not been on medical aid at all before. When you look back, you just see that God puts you on paths that you need to be, my mum and dad decided that I needed to be on medical aid. They put me on medical aid and it wasn’t long after, it was just over a year that I was diagnosed with this and Masca (Medical Aid Society of Central Africa) got everything sorted out, contacts in South Africa, dealing with the South African company that pre-authorised, guaranteed everything for me, they covered everything. Because I was diagnosed in August, my medical aid was renewed again come January, so from August to December, all my chemotherapy had been covered, all my surgeries, my hospital stays, absolutely everything, it was all covered, no shortfalls, the timing of it has just been incredible,’’ stated Shenk.
On whether she has had to change her diet after recovering from cancer, Shenk said “Because I have always been a runner, I have always been quite conscious of how I eat, I’ve tried to be healthy and generally I am pretty a healthy person. Generally, I’ve had to really had to make more conscious decisions like not putting too much processed stuff in my body because my cancer is a hormone positive cancer, there is so many antibiotics and a lot of products that we buy so I’ve had just to be careful with that but also just realising that our bodies, they are with us for the rest of our lives so just making sure that everything I put in it is good and healthy and it’s going to keep me strong.”
Her daughter had to assume some of her mother’s duties because there were times Shenk could not get out of bed.
“My kids have been through a hard time, I was speaking to my daughter the other day, when you actually going through it, you think everything is going to be okay around you, you try to make sure that you are being as upbeat as you can but when people around you know you, they know that it’s actually a hard way that you on. There were times I couldn’t get out of bed and my kids had to carry on, thank goodness my daughter has got a driver’s licence she was taking my son to school, fetching him, she would go do grocery shopping, she had to do a lot of things that are unfair on a child but at the end of the day, we are happy and we are healthy, we got through it,’’ Shenk said.
Her parents also formed a good support structure for their daughter throughout the whole ordeal.
“My parents, they have been by my side through thick and thin, I know my mum and dad every single day have prayed for me through this journey, they have helped me with kids, they have helped me with backwards and forth to South Africa, you name it, they have been by my side the whole time so I’ve had an incredible support structure.”
On the Comrades, Shenk said it is a challenging race since for her it starts at dawn and concludes at dusk.
“They are very tough runs, you start in the morning and you finish at night, you are running for 12 hours so it’s a very long, very hard process but a very rewarding one. My best time in those two years was 10 hours 42 minutes and 10 hours 47,’’ she said.
By running this year’s Comrades, Shenk hopes to inspire people who have gone through a similar battle.
“Exactly a year ago I thought everything was, not over but just it looked bleak, it looked like there was no hope but there is actually a lot of hope, there is still so much joy.”
On her preparedness for the Comrades, Shenk declared: “I am feeling ready, I am feeling strong, I am feeling healthy, I am excited, I am feeling confident for Comrades, I really I am.”
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