AJ News

WAVERLY – With Lung Cancer Awareness month in November in mind, Waverly residents Jim, 55 and Karen, 51, Arscott are gearing for a Philadelphia Marathon to battle the disease. On Nov. 21, with Karen Arscott’s sister, Linda Sacco, 48, Scranton, the Waverly couple will walk the total 26.2 miles of the Philadelphia Marathon.

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Participating in the Philadelphia Race for Lung cancer are, shown from left, Karen Arscott, Jim Arscott and Linda Sacco.

Abington Journal/T’Shaiya Stephenson

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Karen Arscott, director of the Physician Assistant Program at Marywood University, is a two-time survivor of lung cancer. In 2005, when her hand kept turning blue, doctors performed an MRI and a PET scan and noticed she had a nodule in her chest. Five months later she returned for a follow-up visit to find the nodule had grown.

After a diagnosis of stage 1-A lung cancer in 2006, she traveled to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., for surgery. Afterward, she did not sit in the hospital bed waiting to recover. Instead, she walked and sipped water to hydrate. Two days later, she was released.

During one routine visit, 16 months after her first surgery, she was diagnosed again with lung cancer. The second time around, Karen Arscott’s lung cancer was diagnosed as stage 3-A. She received chemotherapy for 12 weeks before her second surgery, and then chemotherapy and radiation treatments in Scranton for eight weeks afterward.

The November marathon will be a challenge compared to the half-marathon – 13.1 miles – the trio completed May 2 in Rhode Island. They walked in May as part of Team Lung Love. Karen Arscott is the northeastern Pennsylvania Regional Captain for Team Lung Love.

They finished the Rhode Island marathon in three hours and two minutes, averaging 14-minute miles, according to Karen Arscott.

Their approach to that marathon is similar to the one for which they are practicing in Philadelphia.

The trio walks, on average, four days a week, clocking a minimum of 4.25 miles, according to Sacco. On weekends they sometimes average six, nine or 12 miles together.

The Arscotts frequently set out on 18-mile walks to predetermined destinations. “We have little routes,” Jim Arscott said about how the couple, married 29 years in August, arrives at their final locations. They mapped routes by driving first.

“The fall is tough,” Karen Arscott said when it comes to their courses. Jim Arscott agreed, saying, it is difficult to walk in the fall because of “the pumpkin crowd,” referring to the people traveling to pumpkin patches.

The Arscotts have participated in marathons for two years. They first participated in November 2008 at the Philadelphia marathon with Team Prevention, sponsored by Prevention magazine. Seven hours were permitted to finish that first marathon in order to receive medals. They knew they were drawing close to the time limit and heard and announcement that the finish line would be moved from the road to the sidewalk. That’s when the announcer spotted the Arscotts. As they neared the finish line, the announcer started playing the theme song from the movie “Rocky.” They crossed the finish line at six hours 59 minutes and 35 seconds. “We got our medals,” Karen Arscott said.

To donate to their effort, visit team Lung Love Web site at teamlunglovephilly.kintera.org. Under the Visitors section on the left-hand side, click Sponsor Participant. The three have separate sponsorship accounts.

Karen Arscott will be hosting an event at the Keith J. O’Neill Center for Healthy Families located at Marywood University Sunday, Aug.15, at 6 p.m. She will discuss her fight against lung cancer and the upcoming Philadelphia Marathon, which highlights landmarks, such as the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Zoo and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is the starting and ending point of the race.