Professor running strong for a cause

Sacramento State physical therapy Professor Clare Lewis recently overcame her apprehension of running long distances by participating in The Lean Horse Run in Hot Springs, South Dakota.  She and her brother, Eric Lewis, ran for a cause that was personal to both of them: pancreatic cancer.  

Their sister-in-law, Kyung Lewis, died from pancreatic cancer last summer. “She was an incredibly beautiful woman and it’s a great loss. It’s so sad, she was really still so young,” Lewis says of her sister-in-law.

It’s not the first time that the family has experienced such loss. Eric Lewis’ father-in-law, Kenneth Schulz, also died recently from the same cancer, and the passing of two people Eric was close to was inspiration to run for their cause and in their memory.

Lewis ran the last half of the run, while her brother ran the full 100 miles.  The siblings decided to run the Lean Horse for the Pancreatica organization and earned more than $1,000 in donations.

Lewis intended to run in long distance marathons and had never run anything longer than 26.2 miles. The run was an exercise in endurance. “It’s definitely given me a better appreciation for what you have to do to get your body to do these endurance activities,” Lewis said.

The experience also revealed the importance of family to the brother and sister.
 
“It was a really neat bonding time between my brother and me,” Lewis says. To keep Eric’s mind off the blisters he achieved during the run, Lewis ended up opening up a lot more to her younger brother then she intended.  

Lewis says she previously couldn’t imagine why anyone would run such long distances but the experience has inspired her to participate in more such events in the future. She has signed for several more fundraising runs, one of which is for pancreatic cancer. Lewis hopes to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, which, despite being one of the deadliest, receives the least research and prevention funding, she says. 

“As I hear about more and more people getting it, it just seems to me there’s got to be a reason for this,” Lewis says. “There’s got to be a mechanism out there that we really aren’t exploring very well right now that could at least help with earlier detection.”

Each year more than 30,000 people in America are diagnosed with a version of pancreatic cancer. However, it’s still considered a lesser-occurring cancer and therefore gets less funding, according to the Pancreatica organization’s website.

Recently, pancreatic cancer has received more press due to celebrities such as Patrick Swayze and Randy Pausch, who have been diagnosed with the disease. Lewis hopes more celebrity support will increase awareness and research for treatment.