From today's Daily Breeze(SoCal);
Hermosa triathlete beat cancer, tobacco and alcohol
Bad habits almost took Ginny Shoren out. She survived a battle with tongue cancer and now tells her cautionary story to students.
By Deepa Bharath
Daily Breeze
Fifteen years ago, Ginny Shoren was as far away from becoming a triathlete as a "Star Wars" movie is from bombing at the box office.
The Hermosa Beach resident and substitute teacher was addicted to alcohol and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. The alcohol habit she managed to shake off, but not before the forces of life made her get on her knees and beg for help.
Looking back, Shoren realizes that her tryst with alcoholism was not half as bad as her furious fight with tongue cancer, which forced her to stop smoking. Now she helps others who are in the predicament she was in not long ago.
Shoren, 57, told a sixth-grade class at Manhattan Beach Middle School on Friday about her long journey, from addict to athlete.
On June 5, Shoren will participate in the Danskin Women's Triathlon at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, which will include a half-mile swim, 13-mile bike ride and 3.1-mile run or walk. The event raises money for what is now Shoren's favorite cause -- cancer research.
"Years ago, the only way I'd run was if someone chased me with a gun," she said, as some middle school students laughed and others smiled.
Diagnosed in May 2001, Shoren lost part of her tongue, the floor of her mouth and her jaw bone to cancer. It took six surgeries to root out the disease and reconstruct her mouth, which was mutilated by the cancer. The surgeries were followed by four months of physical therapy during which she learned to talk again.
The surgery involved taking a piece of her leg bone or fibula and replacing her jaw with it. Surgeons took skin from her hand and attached it to the base of her mouth, which is now held together by an implant-supported denture.
"For a while, I had hair growing on the base of my mouth, just as it would on your hands," she said, with a stoic smile. "It was weird."
What floored Shoren was not what she had to go through, but the results the surgeries produced. Once tongue-tied, she could speak clearly again. Her face looked "normal."
"It's amazing how far research in this area has come," Shoren said. "And I'm the living proof of it." She passed out pictures to students of her scarred face with a multitude of tubes going in and out. The sixth-graders took one look and gasped.
"I couldn't eat solid food," she said. "All I had was liquids that were pumped into me through these tubes."
Shoren hoped the horror of those possible scenarios might help young people make the right choices.
"I started smoking when I was 15," she said. "And I smoked for 38 years. I'm cancer free now today. But I don't know for sure how tomorrow will be because I smoked for as long as I did."
Shoren wonders, but she doesn't let the what-ifs engulf her will to live.
"If I kept thinking about it, I wouldn't be able to move," she said.
So she wears a T-shirt that reads "Teens Kick Ash" and tells her story to students.
"It's all about being proactive," said Shoren, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society. "These kids are the future and if I can arm them with the knowledge, then they have the power to make the choices they need to make."
Training for and participating in the triathlons boosts her energy levels and morale, Shoren said.
"My goal in these races is not to win but to cross the finish line standing up," she said. "And at these events, you'll see these healthy young people flying past you and they'll turn back, pump their fists and tell you: 'You go, girl.' I think that's awesome and it makes me feel real good."
Shoren's teammates who participate at these events under the banner of Team Survivor Los Angeles, a nonprofit that offers free fitness programs for women afflicted with cancer, form a close-knit support group.
"I don't feel like I have to do this all alone," Shoren said. "They're there for me any time of day or night. It's like this most exclusive therapeutic club I never wanted to join."
The first triathlon she entered was in Sacramento two years ago.
"It took me 3½ hours to complete it and I was drenched in sweat," she said. "But I made it."
A lot of it has to do with Shoren's personality and inner strength, said Ni Bueno, her trainer at Team Survivor.
"Ginny is very determined and always willing to work hard," she said. "Once she sets her mind to it, she sees no obstacles."
Shoren also backpacked with the team to the top of Mt. Whitney -- California's highest mountain -- which ranks high on her list of accomplishments.
As she described the hazards of smoking to the class Friday, Shoren also spoke about the damage that chewing tobacco can cause. A boy in one of the last rows stood up and talked about his baseball coach who had chewed tobacco once.
Shoren nodded.
"A doctor in UCLA once told me that if you're chewing tobacco, you might as well pour gasoline into your mouth and light it with a match," she said.
"Are you kidding?" a girl asked, bewildered.
"No," Shoren said.
She added with a hint of a smile: "If you must chew, chew bubble gum."
