You can't break the spirit of a man like Tom Donner.
At 53 years old, Donner is diagnosed with a fast-growing, aggressive form of cancer. He's unable to work for the next year and can't walk without the use of crutches or a wheelchair.
While he admitted his challenges, Donner laid in a hospital bed this week, telling his story while laughing and cracking jokes. He knows that laughter heals - he's known countless people facing the battle against cancer.
Four years ago, the Fort Dodge pharmacist started Fighting Angels Abreast, a dragon boat racing team formed to help women recover from the physical and emotional pain of breast cancer. Since its inauguration, and with Donner as their captain, coach and friend, the team has raised more than $10,000 for Trinity Regional Medical Center's cancer center.
''I always wanted to understand what my team members were going through,'' he said. ''But I never dreamed I'd be living it.''
In June, Donner was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg. The news came with an awful guarantee: The treatment would surpass his insurance benefits cap.
''With a catastrophic illness like this, no matter how good your insurance and disability is, it's nothing anyone is prepared for,'' said his wife, Linda Donner. ''It's kind of overwhelming when you open the mail and get a $63,000 medical bill.''
It turns out that, for the Donners, the dragon boat has become a lifeboat.
"There's just something about getting 18 to 20 people in the boat and getting them to work together," he said. "It's teamwork at its finest."
This year, teamwork at the annual Badger Lake Dragon Boat Bash will help raise funds for Donner's mounting medical bills.
Barb Michaels, co-chair of the event and their close friend, said it was an easy choice because of the Donners' involvement in dragon boat racing in Fort Dodge, as well as their work with the breast cancer survivor team.
''Tom's not just a coach,'' Michaels said. ''He's their counselor; he's their friend. He laughs and cries with them and cheers them along. Now he finds himself facing the same challenge the ladies have.''
It didn't take long for all of the teams involved in the Dragon Boat Bash to come up with themed fundraising ideas to help the Donners. One team will sell Taffies for Tom; another, Tattoos for Tom. At the concession and beer tents, they'll collect Tips for Tom. A silent auction, Trinkets for Tom, will also be held at the festival at John F. Kennedy Park.
A majority of the Donners' support revolves around friendships forged through dragon boat racing. For more than a dozen years, Tom Donner has coached locally and nationally and traveled extensively to compete. He even won a world championship in dragon boat racing.
Yet his success has little to do with his passion for dragon boat racing. Behind his motive for competing is a drive to help other people.
''The first year I dragon boated I had just finished breast cancer treatment,'' said Marilyn Meier, co-captain of Fighting Angels Abreast. ''I wasn't feeling well, but he talked me into getting in the boat. He said whether we paddled or not, we're a team and we're in this together.''
It was Meier and the rest of team who insisted Donner go to the doctor after a leg injury that didn't heal. That appointment led to the cancer diagnosis.
Members of another breast cancer survivor team he formed in Rochester, Minn., were instrumental in getting him into Mayo Clinic. There, they have rallied around him during his first eight weeks of chemotherapy.
''It's almost like having a second family up here in Rochester, helping us out and keeping us going,'' he said.
The Donners are just beginning the battle.
This form of cancer - a sarcoma - requires a 48-week regimen of chemotherapy treatments. Every week, the couple make the three-hour trip to Mayo because Donner must be hospitalized during the treatments. They stay between two and 10 days, depending on how he reacts to the medication.
Sometimes, the travel, meal and lodging expenses are stunning.
Meanwhile, changes to their lifestyle have been devastating. Where he used to work 50 to 60 hours a week at the Hy-Vee Pharmacy, he now must stay off his feet. Because the cancer is in the tibia, the larger of the two bones in his lower leg and the weight-bearing bone of his shin, any weight could crush the tumor and possibly spread the cancer.
''Just carrying a cup of coffee across the room has become an art,'' he said.
Despite these struggles, Tom Donner was out on the water with his dragon boat team as recently as two weeks ago. And although he underwent a 56-hour chemotherapy treatment this week, he'll be at the Dragon Boat Bash this weekend - if he has anything to say about it.
''At the end of the day, we aren't competitors, we're here to build friendships and be supportive of each other,'' he said. ''That's what I coach.''
Contact Abigail McWilliam at (515) 573-2141 or amcwilliam@messengernews.net
