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Shauna Mangum’s Extraordinary Marathon Despite Gaucher Disease
10/15/09

My overachieving wife amazes me.

After years of excessive bleeding, swollen abdomen, fatigue and bone pain in her thighs and hips. Shauna was diagnosed with Type III Gaucher in June of 1995 at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. Mind you, it took almost 5 years to diagnose what was causing all of the above. That’s a lot of biopsies and blood work. If you’re reading this your well aware of the rollercoaster ride involved in a Gaucher diagnosis. In 1999, after a victorious battle versus our insurance company she finally started receiving infusions of Cerezyme®.

Ok, back to the overachieving stuff. Shauna is working on her Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Eastern New Mexico University, she’s a gourmet cook, leads a bible study once a week, a mom of 4 children ranging in age from 15 to 5, and wife of me (well maybe five kids’) and in her spare time she ran the 2009 Chicago Marathon, that’s 26.2 miles, without, the aid of Cerzeyme due to the shortage that sprang up this summer. Her last shipment of the drug was early August.

The intense part of her marathon training began in early July of this year, running 4 days a week and cross-training another day. She was religious about beating the summer heat so she was pounding the pavement before the sun appeared in the eastern sky each scheduled running day. Needless to say there were a lot of bagels and bananas consumed in our house not to mention pasta, carbs, carbs, carbs!! The mileage was as little as 19 miles a week in June and climbed to as much as 40 miles in late September. Finally, two weeks before the marathon, the training schedule steps down on the mileage allowing the body to recover from the abuse of training. It was great for me because the lesser amount of mileage meant that she was able to get back from her run and have the coffee ready by the time I rolled out of bed!!.

Three hundred fifty miles, 4 pairs of shoes and numerous purchases of blister prevention devices later, race day arrived. October 11, 2009 holds a special place for nearly 35,000 people. That is the number of runners that braved the near record low temperatures that set off to prove they had what it took to never quit in the face of adversity.

Well, I’m thrilled to tell you, my wife is not a quitter, although at about mile 17 she was feeling the effects of the Cerezyme® shortage and a case of the flu she picked up three days prior to the race. She crossed the finish line with a time of 5:08. I am so proud of her. All things are possible with a dose of determination and a lot of faith. She proves it over and over.

Shauna really is, the best there is.

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