By Erin Wisdom, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
Jul. 6–Kathy Gabler missed out on Thanksgiving dinner, and she was determined not to do the same thing come Christmas.
So she went to the doctor, hoping for some medicine for indigestion that was stronger than what she’d purchased over the counter. A series of just-in-case tests later, Christmas did come — but not in a way she wanted.
A PET scan displaying cancer cells in red lit Kathy up like a Christmas tree from her neck to her pelvis. At just 47, the Savannah, Mo., woman and mother of three adult children was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer that had spread to many other areas of her body, despite the fact that she’d always led a healthy lifestyle and had never been seriously sick.
She was given two months to two years to live. That is, after all, what medical books predict for most people in her condition: Only 10 percent of those diagnosed with colon cancer in its most advanced stage survive five years.
But Kathy doesn’t do anything by the books.
“I had faith I wasn’t going to fall into that,” she says, now more than six months out from her diagnosis. “I knew I had a lot of living to do — I have weddings and grandkids to come — and I believed I was going to beat it.”
And that wasn’t all she was determined to do. What bothered her most about this cancer was its reputation as a “silent killer” — one her oncologist told her likely originated last summer when she first began experiencing what she thought was indigestion and that advanced quickly from there. Like her, many people who have the cancer have few or no symptoms, and the Gablers decided to turn their tragedy of being taken by surprise by Kathy’s far-advanced disease into something that could save other people from going through the same.
They established Kathy’s Cause, a fund they intend to use to support colorectal cancer awareness in the St. Joseph area, and they organized a 5K run/walk and golf tournament scheduled to take place in Savannah on July 19. All proceeds from the event, rather than going toward Kathy’s cancer treatment, will be used locally to educate people about colorectal screening and to help pay for colorectal screening tests offered for free to the public.
“This cancer is 90 percent curable if it’s caught in the early stages,” Kathy says, adding that she thinks the age at which people are urged to get their first colonoscopy should be lowered from 50 to 40. “If I can get one person who needs a screening to have one, this effort will be well worth it.”
The effort they’ve put into planning their awareness event also has been a way to distract themselves from the devastation they felt following the cancer diagnosis, Kathy and her husband, Greg, say. But devastation is far from the end of their story.
In April, four months after learning she had cancer and after undergoing just as many months of chemotherapy, Kathy went in for another PET scan. For some reason beyond what doctors could explain, this one showed no cancer — meaning that although Kathy isn’t cured completely and will likely need chemotherapy for the rest of her life, her treatment had eliminated all the cancerous cells the original test showed, and no new ones had occurred. Her doctor told her he had never seen chemotherapy work so well so quickly.
“To know that in four months, the cancer cells were gone — it’s an absolute miracle,” Kathy says, adding that she and her family attribute this outcome not only to her positive attitude but also to the prayers of people all over the country — most of whom they don’t know.
“One Sunday night, I got a call from a friend in Kansas City,” Greg says, “And he said, ‘Do you hear that? That’s the sound of 600 people you’ve never met praying just for you.'”
The Gablers also see God at work in their situation in other ways, such as in the fact that after wintering in Florida for years, Greg’s parents decided not long before Kathy’s diagnosis that they didn’t want to do that anymore and sold their motor home. This meant that ever since Kathy’s diagnosis, Greg’s mother, Helen, has been here to sit with her through all of her five-hour chemotherapy sessions, and both she and Greg’s father, Ken, have played a big part in planning this month’s awareness event.
“It has brought us closer as a family,” Ken says. “We’ve been bound by Kathy’s cause, because we think it’s both admirable and necessary.”
Too many people think being screened for colorectal cancer is unnecessary, he adds, and invariably, some of those are the ones who need the screening most. They’re the ones, too, who Kathy considers her purpose for living with cancer.
“I use the term I’m the ‘chosen one,'” she says. “I’m one person who’s supposed to bring awareness to this disease. That’s how I view it, and that’s what I want to do.”
Kathy’s Cause
The event Kathy Gabler and her family have planned to raise money for Kathy’s Cause, a fund that will be used locally to raise awareness about colorectal cancer and to pay for test kits offered free to the public, includes a 5K run/walk that will begin at 9 a.m. July 19. Registration will begin at 8 a.m. at the Clasbey Community Center in Savannah, Mo.
The day also will include lunch at 11 a.m. and a four-man scramble golf tournament beginning at 1 p.m. at Duncan Hills Golf Course in Savannah. The first-place team will receive a refund of its entry fee, and the second-place team will receive a refund of half its entry fee. A $10,000 prize will be given for a hole-in-one, and hole and raffle prizes will be awarded at the end of play.
An entry fee of at least $25 is asked of each 5K participant, and each will receive a T-shirt. The entry fee for each golf team is $300, which will pay for participant gift bags, a cart, green fees and T-shirts.
Donations and memorials also are being accepted for the fund and can be mailed to Kathy’s Cause, c/o Heartland Foundation, 502 Angelique St., St. Joseph, MO 64506. To donate by phone, call 271-7200.
For more information, call Kathy at 271-6011 or 324-5573 or Helen Gabler at 233-3408 or 294-0214.
Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at [email protected].
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