A year ago, Chuck Spang noticed that he wasn't feeling completely like himself.
"My normal day to day life was fine. The only thing that bothered me was if I ran more than a half mile. I'm like, well maybe I'm just getting old," explained Spang.
His wife Dawn added, "Very pale, he just didn't look right to me."
A physical immediately threw up red flags.
"Hemoglobin's only 6.8 and normal is 13.7. The next three weeks were all testing. I didn't think it was cancer," said Spang.
Chuck had surgery to remove a foot long tumor from his intestines and 10 lymph nodes. After testing, the news was terrible. Stage four lymphoma.
Spang described his reaction, "We were just in shock and we didn't know what to think."
Dawn said, "I was sitting in a chair and I thought I was literally going to fall. It was like, wow, it really couldn't get any worse."
Telling their three children that he had a 50/50 percent chance to live seemed impossible.
"It was a horrible, horrible thing to have to do that to my kids," explained Dawn.
"But we told them that I was going to fight it and I was going to win," added Spang.
But he approached chemo in the same way as running. He put his head down and kept moving forward.
"I had bad days, but I just felt like I was going to beat it and that was all there was to it," said Spang. "There's too many things in life to miss."
Three months after his treatment, they received the wonderful news that his lymphoma was in remission.
"I cried and then we wanted to do nothing but tell people," exclaimed Dawn.
Soon after, Chuck quickly decided to sign up for the Cellcom Marathon.
"I feel like he trained harder for this one than any other one because I feel like he wanted to prove to himself I really am better," said Dawn.
On Sunday, Chuck will wear this race shirt with all the dates significant to his lymphoma treatment. The marathon will take place a year and two weeks after his diagnosis and just one week before the anniversary of his first chemo.
"Showing myself that cancer's really gone and I'm a new person, ready to go," said Spang.
This time around, crossing the finish line will have a much greater meaning.
In between tears, Dawn said "I don't think there are even words."
"I'm just excited to do it and I can't wait to run into my wife's arms and give her a hug," said Spang.
Spang is also running this race to raise money to bring awareness to human trafficking that happens in Brown County. Being the father of two daughters, he wants everyone to know about the manipulations of sex traffickers. He's hoping to raise $7,500 to help give survivors who are rescued hope. You can find out more through his Facebook page: Chuck Spang.
