Saying thank to my support team the best way I know how - to run. March 2022, Josh ran the Austin Half Marathon and completed his first CrossFit competition to raise over $5,000 for colorectal cancer research and the Livestrong Center.
EXTRACT FROM INTERVIEW
Originally published by Livingstrong Cancer Institute, Austin Texas USA.
For avid marathon runner and U.K. native Josh Vintner-Jackson, 2020 was an especially tough year: Mere months after he moved to Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And shortly afterward, what started as stomach pain revealed a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis for Vintner-Jackson, just 28.
“I wasn’t allowed to leave my apartment due to my weakened immune system,” Vintner-Jackson, now 31, says. “My family couldn’t be here, as they live abroad. It was not what I was anticipating life looking like, by any stretch.”
After surgery to remove a tumor the size of a golf ball, Vintner-Jackson began a chemotherapy regimen with UT Health Austin’s Livestrong Cancer Institutes, part of the clinical practice of Dell Medical School.
For someone like Vintner-Jackson, whose family was unable to visit during his six months of chemotherapy treatment, the connections with his care team became all the more meaningful. Frequent calls, texts and other points of contact — often just to check in — made a world of difference for his treatment and outlook.
When his chemotherapy came to an end last year, Vintner-Jackson dove back into his fitness pursuits — but this time, on a mission: In March 2022, Vintner-Jackson ran the Austin Half Marathon and completed his first CrossFit competition to raise over $5,000 for colorectal cancer research.
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