‘Do it now’
Organization helps fulfill terminally ill woman’s dream to compete on Maui
Colorado resident Sandy Lahmann will have more at stake than watching her finishing time today when she competes in the Xterra 5K Trail Run with her daughter, Tory Sigmond, an avid triathlete.
Lahmann, 54, of Keystone, Colo., has cancer — stage IV adenocarcinoma, which was diagnosed as terminal 18 months ago.
And now, time is running out.
After pressuring her doctor to tell her how much time she had left, he told her one to two years.
“It’s been a year and a half,” she said. “I don’t mind dying. . . . The process of dying is what scares me. How bad is it going to get? How long is it going to take?”
Lahmann said that the cancer killed her marriage and left her divorced. She has a 30-year-old son, a diesel mechanic in Seattle, and a 27-year-old daughter, Tory, who has put her career on hold to return to Colorado to care for her mother.
For some much-needed relief, Lahmann and her daughter applied to the Dream Foundation to seek help with fulfilling Lahmann’s dream of competing in today’s Xterra 5K Trail Run with her daughter, and watching her compete Sunday in the Xterra World Championship.
Lahmann said she’s already run two 5K races, the Xterra Beaver Creek 5K Trail Run in Colorado in 2015 and earlier this year. And that “showed me that I am not a helpless victim of my cancer and can still enjoy life, even with this hideous disease.”
“I would love to run one last 5K with my daughter while I am still able to do so,” she said.
The Dream Foundation fulfilled Lahmann’s dream, paying for her and her daughter to travel to Maui.
It’s been a long road to reach this point.
In 2004, Lahmann noticed weakness in her left side that initially was believed to be multiple sclerosis but later was determined to be a nonspecific neuro-muscular disorder, she said.
As a result, she was confined to a wheelchair much of the time, she said.
From November 2007 to October 2010, she wrote a column, “Disability 101,” for the Summit Daily News. The column challenged “outdated, patronizing attitudes and encouraged readers to view people with disabilities as persons of strength with great capabilities.”
She has encouraged people to “come into the world of disability.”
“Disability is not a world of ‘poor me, please help me,’ but a world of creative possibilities and exploring new dreams,” she wrote.
Later, after months of debilitating pain that left her bedridden, Lahmann was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma in April 2015. She underwent radiation treatment and oral chemotherapy, which reduced her tumor and pain and gradually allowed her to walk again.
She said she’s not sure where the cancer began. She had pain in her pelvis and, by the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had metastasized to her lungs and bones.
“I’m always in pain, but I’m on some pretty heavy duty meds to control the pain,” she said. But “competing helps me be healthier. The more exercise I get . . . it helps,” both physically and emotionally.
At the time of her mother’s cancer diagnosis, Sigmond was living in Bangkok. She speaks English, Spanish and German and was working in client management and international business.
Instead of concentrating on her career, Sigmond went to Colorado to care for her mother and began helping her exercise — first by walking only 14 minutes, seven minutes out and back. The exercise periods gradually grew longer, and “pretty soon we were doing several miles,” Lahmann said.
Before leaving Asia, Sigmond competed in the Xterra Philippines, which qualified her for the Xterra World Championship on Maui.
Sigmond asked her mom if she wanted to compete in a 5K, and she said, “Yes.” And she began training for the Xterra Beaver Creek run.
“I didn’t realize she was joking,” Lahmann said, adding that she could run or walk the route.
Sigmond was her support crew, carrying her crutches if she needed them or actually supporting her weight as they crossed the finish line. So far, they’ve completed two races together.
Arriving on Maui late Thursday, mother and daughter have been staying in a Lahaina condominium and began exploring the island Friday.
“I am loving it,” Lahmann said, adding that she doesn’t have the chance to go to the beach back home, and she was thrilled to visit the shoreline.
“I’ve been wandering around all day,” she said. “I’m really soaking it up.”
She also was looking forward to competing in today’s 5K race.
“We’re really excited,” she said.
The Dream Foundation also arranged for Lahmann and her daughter to go on two snorkeling trips, to go to a luau, to get massages and “a variety of other fun things,” she said.
Lahmann said her experience with cancer has taught her to seize opportunities.
“Don’t wait to do the things you want to do,” she said.
Lahmann had been a special education teacher and had dreamed of one day teaching internationally, but there was never time to do so.
Now, when people have dreams, she advises them to “forget about waiting, do it now.”
“You never know if you’re going to have time,” she said. “Anybody could find out tomorrow that they have cancer.”
In addition to support from the Dream Foundation, Xterra gifted Lahmann a ticket to the Xterra Dinner of Champions, which she will attend with her daughter. And, she received a discount for her entry in the 5K run.
Lahmann is working on a novel, “The Private Musings of a Crazy Person.” The first draft is done, she said, now “there’s a lot of revisions to do.”
The foundation is the only national dream-making program for terminally ill adults. It fulfills dreams that provide inspiration, comfort and closure at the end of life.
For more information, visit DreamFoundation.org.
* Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.