A Marathon A Day To Raise Awareness Of Cancer

Scott Mills stopped in Oskaloosa to talk about his marathon-a-day across Iowa.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Cancer is a disease that impacts lives in many different ways. For Scott Mills, his battle with the disease kicked off a desire to help raise awareness of that disease and to raise funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.

Mills is a Manning, Iowa native who took off on his marathon-a-day journey across Iowa on August 28th. His path mostly takes him along Highway 92, where on Wednesday he jogged his way into Oskaloosa from Sigourney. His hope is to raise $1000 a day for his efforts.

Mills had a theme-a-day while on his trek, and he jogged into Oskaloosa with a shirt from the hit film ‘Forrest Gump’.

Mills was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 when he was told he had a big mass in his abdomen. After receiving that initial report, Mills decided that “A – I’m going to beat it, and B- I’m going to make it count.”

The days leading up to his biopsy, Mills took part in a ‘tough mudder’ competition that was a 12 mile obstacle course. On the Monday after the ‘tough mudder’, Mills found out from the biopsy that he had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Mills endured 20 rounds of chemotherapy, with his last treatment coming in November of 2014. “So when they showed us the scans, before and after. “I didn’t know how messed up I was,” said Mills.

“It’s been a blessing. It’s made me a better person, having been diagnosed with cancer,” said a choked up Mills. “It calls a time-out.”

Mills explained that you can look at the situation like “Hey your dying” or “You can say no, your just telling me I need to start living.”

In 2013, Mills, while having a discussion with his brother-in-law, decided he was going to run across Iowa. Mills was still an active runner while he was battling cancer, competing in marathons.

“I’m lucky to be diagnosed with cancer because A- it made me a better person, B- it focused me on what’s important, and C- my wife doesn’t have it.” Mills said if his wife had cancer, he would only be able to worry about her; “Or even worse, our children.”

To learn more about Mills and his effort to raise funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital visit https://runitforward.wordpress.com/