KAREN SMITH

Karen Smith, healthy with no family history of gastrointestinal trouble and almost no symptoms, was shocked by colon cancer. Despite her diagnoses, she returned to her athletic lifestyle to prove to herself that she would triumph over/defeat cancer.

Karen didn’t know anything was wrong until routine bloodwork showed anemia. Iron supplements helped, but then she had severe pain in her side. She had a stool test, a colonoscopy, and surgery, and her doctor told her that she had stage II colon cancer.

She started chemotherapy, but soon began exercising although she had been told she might be too weak. Karen has been cancer-free for almost three years, and continues the exercise that is so important to her.