New York Runner’s Inspiring Quest to Run the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon with One Lung

This past weekend, Disney hosted the Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Walt Disney World and have released information about Debbie Rogers, who is a 55-year old Westchester, N.Y., native and mother of five children, who credits Walt Disney World Resort with saving her life.

Rogers finished the 13.1-mile Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon on Sunday with only one healthy lung, as a result of lung cancer doctors discovered roughly 10 months ago, after she completed the 26.2-mile Disney Marathon in January.

It was during that January race at Disney that Rogers injured her foot. What she thought was a routine trip to the doctor to examine the foot turned out to be a life-altering affair, after doctors discovered a tumor on her right lung.

Because the foot injury prompted her to seek medical attention, doctors caught the cancer early, which made a full recovery far more likely. Despite having part of her right lung removed during surgery on the tumor, she is healthy enough again to run, and fittingly, made her return to competitive running at the one place – Disney – that she said “saved my life.’’

“Had I not trained for the Disney Marathon and not have had a running injury and not have completed the marathon, they would have found the lung cancer too late,’’ Rogers said. “It is very, very rare to find early stage lung cancer!!’’