Read time: 5 minutes.
Endurance athletes have raised money for LUNGevity across the country, and recently, across the globe. We’ve celebrated researchers running the Big Sur International Marathon and family members completing the BMW Berlin Marathon. And next year, LUNGevity’s first time as an Official Charity Partner with the Schneider Electric Paris Marathon, we get to cheer on Katie Gilmore—a lung cancer survivor who was diagnosed while 12 weeks pregnant.
Focused on Safety for Two
In 2023, as she was ushered between tests and scans in the emergency room, Katie had to keep reminding the doctors and nurses that she was pregnant. At just 12 weeks she was hardly showing, and each test had signs that cautioned their use on people who were pregnant.
She'd been coughing up blood the previous 24 hours and found herself focused on two very confusing and concerning thoughts:
- How can I feel physically ok yet be going through something that seems so serious?
- If I’m not healthy how will the baby be healthy?
“After days of tests and a biopsy, I was sent home to wait for the results, which happened to be Mother’s Day weekend. That whole weekend I was flooded with emotions, thinking what if it’s cancer and what does that mean for the baby. Then I got the results—they said I had neuroendocrine lung cancer (NET),” says Katie.
Surgery was the recommended treatment option, but Katie needed to decide whether to have it immediately or wait until after giving birth, which was still six months away.
“The first doctor wanted to have surgery immediately. My parents encouraged me to get a second opinion, and in total I met with seven doctors—two said they were comfortable waiting until after I gave birth.”
There was no guarantee that Katie wouldn’t start coughing up blood again during that time. If she did, it would likely mean emergency surgery on her lung, but she found comfort in waiting thanks to the confidence of her doctors.
When November 7 came, and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Tommy, it was proof she made the right decision. And just three weeks later, Katie had successful surgery that removed the cancer along with half of her left lung.
Choosing to Create a Beautiful Opportunity
It would make sense if Katie needed time and space after going through an incredibly scary six months followed by physical therapy to recover from surgery. Instead, it pushed her to get more involved with LUNGevity.
“I’ve always had running a marathon on my bucket list. Prior to my lung cancer, I had done a lot of 5k’s and some half marathons. I even ran a 5k just 10 days before I started coughing up blood. So when I saw that LUNGevity was going to be at the Paris Marathon and that I could sign up, I saw it as a beautiful opportunity to connect my love of running with lung cancer, two things that are really important to me,” says Katie.
As Katie trains alongside her sister Bridget, who is also running in Paris for Team LUNGevity, she often finds herself motivated by thinking about the people who are still going though treatment. She’s running for them as much as she’s running for herself.
“I've always felt some survivor’s guilt since I never had to do chemotherapy or radiation and was lucky enough to have a successful surgery. Sharing what I went through and now training for this marathon has been like food for my soul,” says Katie.
After undergoing surgery just three weeks after giving birth, and now missing half a lung, Katie will take the start line for her first-ever marathon on April 13, 2025, in Paris, France. She’ll start alongside her sister and have the backing of our community for all 26.2 miles.
More stories from people living with lung cancer: