Karen Liesching-Schroder said running a half marathon two weeks after finishing radiotherapy gave her a focus during cancer treatment.
A tongue cancer survivor has described how running helped her to feel in control of her life during treatment.
Karen Liesching-Schroder, who ran a half marathon two weeks after finishing radiotherapy, said: “The fact that I could run all the way through really helped.”
Macmillan Cancer Support recently praised an NHS initiative to offer newly diagnosed cancer patients a “prehab” regime of three fitness sessions a week, saying it could help them to prepare both physically and mentally for treatment, reclaim a sense of control and improve their health in the long term.
Karen, 47, a school nursery nurse from Rochford, Essex, told the PA news agency: “Once you start it all, you have to attend all these appointments. You are not getting any say in it.
“You meet some amazing people but sometimes you are waiting around for that appointment and you can’t get on with anything.”
Karen, who had surgery then radiotherapy and had to stop driving while taking morphine, said she felt she was losing control of her own life. Preparing for the half marathon gave her a focus.
“I had to have something like that, a focus, rather than it all be about cancer,” she said.
“I think a lot of people struggle with a cancer diagnosis if they haven’t got anything else to focus on.”
Southend Half Marathon is a special race for Karen and her running club Flyers Southend because they remember a friend who died after finishing and Karen said there was “no way” she could not take part.
Fellow runner Keith Passingham, who himself survived bowel cancer, helped Karen to prepare, liaised with the organisers and carried her medicine and protein shakes when they ran together on the day.
“We also had loads of people along the route who knew, so I could pull out if I needed to. But I knew I wouldn’t pull out,” said Karen, who was also supported by her electrician husband Ian, 61.
“Halfway through radiotherapy it was getting tough. The nurse said the symptoms get worse for two weeks after radiotherapy. I said ‘I’ll be fine, I’m doing it’.”
Karen took morphine before the race and even ran with the uncomfortable peg – nicknamed her “alien” – still in her stomach so she could be given drugs and protein shakes.
“I hadn’t run more than five miles. I didn’t take it seriously,” she said.
“We knew so many people on the course. We stopped for hugs and high fives. We were singing, having a right laugh.
“I kept saying I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Karen added: “We made the most of every minute of it.
“I took something like three-and-a-half hours but didn’t feel it at all. I was in my element.
“I did collapse into Ian’s arms – but a happy collapse.
“I had proved a point and I felt on top of the world.”
Afterwards, Karen said she realised she “had probably overdone it” as the morphine wore off.
“The next day I was really sore but I didn’t really care,” she said.
“The Wednesday after I went back to hospital with my medal.”
Karen, who now supports others with cancer, said she associated mouth cancers with old men who smoked and drank until she was diagnosed after suffering for several months with what she thought was a painful ulcer.
The mum to daughter Naomi, 20, and son Drew, 15, said the diagnosis was a shock as she was a fit and healthy person who had never smoked and drank very little alcohol.
It was only when the pain became unbearable in October 2015 that Karen saw a nurse who told her ‘that’s not an ulcer, that’s a hole in your mouth’.
Karen saw a specialist in February 2016 and admitted she was in shock when she was told she had tongue cancer following a biopsy: “I always thought of it as being an old man’s disease.”
She shared a diary of her diagnosis, treatment and recovery on Facebook to encourage others to check their mouths, including a video of what her tongue looks likes following surgery.
“I put up that video of what I call my Loch Ness Monster. I was really nervous about seeing people afterwards,” she said.
“I thought it wouldn’t hurt for people to see what I have in there now so they can see why I have battles with food and why sometimes my speech isn’t so clear.”
Karen’s limited tongue movement makes swallowing difficult so eating out can be challenging.
“I stopped getting invited. People were starting to feel awkward around me. I’m not easy to cook for or to cater for.
“I just accepted that was how it was.”
Karen said she felt “ostracised” and lost confidence but has been helped by speech therapy. One video shows her demonstrating the exercises she does regularly: “That’s like with running, if you want to get anywhere with it you have to keep doing it.”
She has also tried to stay positive and encourages others to do the same: “I have had so many silver linings – no tracheotomy, no skin grafts, no teeth removed, I didn’t have to have chemo. I was very lucky. I was looking out for silver linings.”
Surviving cancer has given her a different perspective on life which now has a slower pace and more time at home, she said.
Karen still runs but often stops to enjoy the moment or to take a picture: “You have got to stop and take these little moments in.”
She urges people to check their mouths every month, looking out for ulcers, red or white patches and lumps: “Get a good look so you know what normal looks like.”
Pain, lumps in the neck or a persistent sore throat or cough should be checked out.
“If something just looks a bit revolting, check,” she added. “I don’t want anybody else to have to go through this.”
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Stung by paying billions of dollars for settlements and trials, chemical giant Bayer has been lobbying lawmakers in three states to pass bills providing it a legal shield from lawsuits that claim its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
Nearly identical bills introduced in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho this year — with wording supplied by Bayer — would protect pesticide companies from claims they failed to warn that their product causes cancer, if their labels otherwise complied with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations.
But legal experts warn the legislation could have broader consequences — extending to any product liability claim or, in Iowa’s case, providing immunity from lawsuits of any kind. Critics say it could spread nationwide.
"It’s just not good government to give a company immunity for things that they’re not telling their consumers,” said Matt Clement, a Jefferson City, Missouri, attorney who represents people suing Bayer. “If they’re successful in getting this passed in Missouri, I think they’ll be trying to do this all over the country.”
Bayer described the legislation as one strategy to address the “headwinds” it faces. About 167,000 legal claims against Bayer assert Roundup causes a cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which Bayer disputes. The company has won some cases, settled many others but also has suffered several losses in which juries awarded huge initial judgments. It has paid about $10 billion while thousands of claims linger in court.
Though some studies associate Roundup's key ingredient with cancer, the EPA has regularly concluded it is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed.
The costs of “defending a safe, approved product” are unsustainable, said Jess Christiansen, head of communications for Bayer's crop science division.
The legislation was introduced in targeted states pivotal to Bayer's Roundup operations and is at a different stage in each. It passed the Iowa Senate, is awaiting debate in the Missouri House and was defeated in Idaho, where this year's legislative session ended.
Farmers overwhelmingly rely on Roundup, which was introduced 50 years ago as a more efficient way to control weeds and reduce tilling and soil erosion. For crops like corn, soybeans and cotton, it’s designed to work with genetically modified seeds that resist Roundup’s deadly effect.
Missouri state Rep. Dane Diehl, a farmer who worked with Bayer to sponsor the legislation, cited concerns that costly lawsuits could force Bayer to pull Roundup from the U.S. market, leaving farmers to depend on alternative chemicals from China.
“This product, ultimately, is a tool that we need," said Diehl, a Republican.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said in an email the legislation maintains the integrity of the regulatory process and, without it, “Iowa risks losing hundreds of jobs” in Muscatine, an eastern Iowa city where Roundup is mostly produced.
The Associated Press is seeking public records on Bayer’s communications with governor's offices in Iowa, Missouri and Idaho.
Bayer, like other companies, hires lobbyists in states to advocate for its interests. The company backs this legislation in the states where “we have a big, direct economic impact,” Christiansen said.
Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, is derived from phosphate mined in Idaho. And St. Louis is the headquarters of its North America crop science division, acquired in its 2018 purchase of Monsanto. Because of that, many of the lawsuits are filed in Missouri.
The five lobbyists registered for Bayer in Iowa and three in Idaho is largely consistent with recent years, but the number working in Missouri this year ballooned from four to nine. Lobbyist expenditures exceeded $8,000 in Idaho this year; similar information was not available in Iowa or Missouri.
Led by Bayer, a coalition of agricultural organizations called Modern Ag Alliance also is spending tens of thousands of dollars on radio and print advertisements claiming that trial lawyers and litigation threaten the availability of glyphosate.
On its website, the group asserts that at risk are 500 jobs connected to glyphosate production in Iowa, and 800 jobs in Idaho.
Bayer stopped short of threatening closures. The Iowa facilities, including in Muscatine, “are very critical facilities to our business, so we'll remain at some sort of support level,” Christiansen said.
At issue in the lawsuits and legislation is how Bayer – and any other pesticide company — communicates with consumers about the safety of its products.
Companies are required to register products with the EPA, which evaluates — and then reevaluates every 15 years — a pesticide and its label. The EPA reiterated in 2020 that glyphosate used as directed posed no health risks to humans. But a federal appeals court panel in 2022 ruled that decision “was not supported by substantial evidence” and ordered the EPA to review further.
The debate over glyphosate escalated when a 2015 report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, said it's “probably carcinogenic to humans" based on “limited” evidence of cancer in people and “sufficient” evidence in study animals.
Based on that international report, California sought to add a cancer warning label to products containing glyphosate. But a federal appeals court ruled against California last November, concluding such a warning wasn't factual.
Christiansen emphasized that many regulatory agencies worldwide agree with the EPA and insisted Bayer has to stick to EPA labeling to ensure it isn't providing false or misleading information. She added that the company is transparent in the information it does provide.
Critics of the legislation aren't convinced, citing examples such as opioids and asbestos that had been deemed safe for use as directed — until they weren't.
There also are concerns that the legislation could stifle any product liability claim since most rely on the argument that a company failed to warn, said Andrew Mertens, executive director of the Iowa Association for Justice, an organization for trial lawyers.
Jonathan Cardi, a product liability and torts expert at Wake Forest University School of Law, also said a strict reading of the Iowa legislation extends beyond liability claims, and “the way it’s drafted makes it interpretable to mean nobody could bring any suit.”
In lobbying lawmakers and in speaking with the AP, Bayer representatives disputed that the legislation would cut off other legal actions. Several legal experts said the legislation is unlikely to affect the 18,000 lawsuits already pending in Missouri’s capital of Jefferson City, and wouldn’t prevent claims in states that don’t adopt similar legislation.
In Idaho, the Republican-led Senate narrowly defeated the bill amid concerns about relying on federal agencies' safety standards and limiting the ability of harmed individuals to sue.
John Gilbert, who farms in Iowa Falls, Iowa, with limited use of Roundup, called Republicans hypocritical for attempting to protect corporate interests after campaigning on standing up for Iowans.
The bill “invites a lot of reckless disregard," said Gilbert, who is on the board for the Iowa Farmers Union. “No amount of perfume’s gonna make it anything but a skunk."
