Participants from last year’s Rump Run 5k cross the finish line.More Info
Rump RunAll funds raised benefit the Greater Chattanooga Colon Cancer Foundation’s efforts to increase awareness of colorectal cancer, improve access to screenings and offer support to those touched by the disease in the Greater Chattanooga region.Participants can register online at rumprun.com or on race day at the race site beginning at 7:30 a.m. The timed 5k will kick off at 9 a.m. and the Fun Walk at 9:15 a.m., followed by an awards ceremony.Pre-registration costs $30 online and $35 mail-in. Day-of registration is $40. Cost for kids age 10 and under is $10.Volunteers are needed for the event. Call 757-0730 to sign up to assist on race day.
If you ask Kermit Hester, the biggest threat to your health isn’t cancer, but fear. The fear of going to the doctor, of feeling uncomfortable during a colonoscopy, of finding something wrong, of serious surgery, of a lengthy recovery.
These are all fears Hester has faced. But his biggest fear, he said, is others letting their own fear keep them from going to the doctor until a diagnosis comes too late.
Hester was once one of the many too afraid and hesitant to deal with the discomfort of a colonoscopy. Besides, he told himself, he felt fine, so there was no need to go through what seemed like such an ordeal. So he ignored Centers for Disease Control guidelines and bypassed the invasive test at age 50, and again at 60.
Several years later, a doctor convinced Hester to get his first colonoscopy. When noncancerous polyps were found, the doctor recommended he have another test a year later, just in case. When the second results came back fine, the doctor recommended he return in three years.
Following that next routine screening, Hester was advised to come back the next day to discuss the results.
“I knew that was out of the ordinary,” he said.
That day, he embarked on a year-long journey through colorectal tumor removal surgery, months of chemotherapy, which he was able to take in pill form without side effects, and the eventual reversal surgery to help him return to “normal.”
That year wasn’t as difficult as he imagined it would be, he said. And three years later, at age 73, he is alive and healthy.
Now, Hester said, he works to spread awareness about the importance of early screening when it comes to colon cancer, the third-most-common cancer in the U.S. And, he is working with the Greater Chattanooga Colon Cancer Foundation, which will host the sixth annual Greater Chattanooga Rump Run 5k Saturday, March 19 at Enterprise South.
“My brother told me he would never have [a colonoscopy],” he said. “That was a guy who spent 37 years in the military and he wouldn’t have a colonoscopy. He was in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it says something that he was more uncomfortable and scared of that procedure.
“There’s really nothing to it,” Hester added. “You go in [for the screening] and all of a sudden, next thing you know it’s over. I think for most people it’s just a part of the body or the anatomy that they don’t want to discuss; it’s taboo. But you need to find out.”
Email Gabrielle Chevalier at gchevalier@timesfreepress.com