Mother prepares for Capital City Half & Quarter Marathon after overcoming cancer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Capital City Half & Quarter Marathon will take place Downtown on Saturday morning.
Many athletes’ goals are to get their best times, but for one OhioHealth employee, just being a part of the race is an achievement in itself. In 2022, Katie Foster was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with her second child. Two weeks after delivering her son, she began chemotherapy.
“It was very hard having a one-and-a-half year old and a newborn. I felt like I wasn’t fully there for them,” said Katie Foster, OhioHealth physician assistant.
During chemotherapy, she was introduced to scalp cooling therapy. It includes wearing a cold cap during treatments to keep your hair.
“Cold capping is a way to have control in a situation that is so out of your control. It was a way for me to take back some of what was going to be taken from me,” Foster said.
Last July, she completed her final round of chemotherapy. To celebrate her strength, Foster is running a quarter marathon.
“My body just went through so much this last year and a half. Running six-and-a-half miles is not painless but now I get to put my body through something that’s my own choice,” Foster said.
This is also an opportunity for her to give back. A portion of each race registration will go to the OhioHealth Foundation. It provides patients with the same scalp therapy that Foster got.
“They pay for about two thirds of it for patients so I benefited from that myself," Foster said. "So, when I saw that this is what the race was benefitting, I just knew that I had to get involved because how cool is that to be able to be on this side of things."
Foster will be running with her coworkers and family right beside her.