Making lung cancer visible through climbing mountains: "When I was diagnosed I never thought I could do a two-thousander"

Elena Moro Madrid

Madrid

Updated Saturday, March 23, 2024-00:32

I ascend taking small steps, leaning on the

trekking

poles . My heart races. A look at the heart rate monitor to confirm it, although it wouldn't be necessary: ​​I feel the heartbeat pounding in my chest faster and faster. Phew! Each stride costs more to catch air and get it to the lungs. I look up from the ground: 50 m left. to the top. The most demanding. A few more steps and I reach the geodetic vertex that marks 2,428 m. from the Peñalara peak. The 360 ​​degree panoramic view of the Sierra de Guadarrama is spectacular. I inhale deeply, taking a breath of pure mountain air, feeling powerful. If I have felt this way, how did Guillermo or María feel when they went up to Peñalara last year for the first time and

with active treatment for lung cancer

? The same physical sensations - cancer does not prevent them from doing sports, on the contrary, it helps in their treatment - but double or triple the satisfaction when achieving a challenge like this.

"When I was diagnosed with cancer, I couldn't think that I would be able to reach two thousand," says Guille. And "

lung cancer" and "climbing mountains" seem a priori an oxymoron, but they are compatible

. Both María and Guillermo were two of the patients who ascended to the roof of Guadarrama thanks to the

A Pulmón

project promoted by the Spanish Association of Lung Cancer Patients (AEACaP), whose objective is to make lung cancer visible

through the ascent to the peaks. and show that there are things that are changing

thanks to prevention and science, "that there are people who live with the disease and live a normal life," adds Alberto Urtasun, mountaineer, high mountain guide and creator of the project with his friend Santiago Viteri, medical oncologist.

«Unfortunately, lung cancer is the most common cancer in men worldwide, the second most affected in Spain, and the first with the highest mortality rate. In the last 10 years, much progress has been made in research and treatments.

Before, life expectancy when you were diagnosed was 9 months in most cases, and now it is not

. But it is considered a second-class cancer. The example is that there is no early diagnosis campaign for lung cancer, as there has been for a long time for colon and breast cancer. At A lung we believe that there should not be so much difference between some tumors and others. The fact of having cancer is a tsunami that happens in your life, and this cancer is highly stigmatized by smoking. And we also have to eliminate that thought because there are many affected people who have never smoked.

A moment of ascension.MIKAEL HELSING

María was diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of 29, she is now 40. "I had never done hiking or mountaineering in my life," she says, "and that climb to Peñalara was an incredible experience, it left a mark on me, it left a mark on me." "I have a lot of self-improvement, of thinking that you can always do something that you thought was impossible." On the ascent,

the athletes are accompanied by mountain guides and their doctors

, such as Fabio Franco, from the Medical Oncology Service and medical manager of the Phase I Clinical Trials Unit of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Madrid, who also wants to break the stigma that you can't play sports if you have cancer. «The functionality of the patient is very variable depending on the disease that each one has, but in general incorporating physical exercise is essential from the beginning, because it brings improvements in many aspects: in functional respiratory capacity, in tolerance to medications, makes "The treatments are more effective, the quality of life improves..."

Last year

, 60 patients (6 people per community) and 30 doctors from 6 hospitals participated in A Lung

, and each of the summits was dedicated to making a specific aspect of the disease visible. In this year's project, meters and meters of unevenness and powerful challenges also await you, such as Torre Cerredo (2,652 m.) in Asturias, Aizkorri (1,528 m.), in the Basque Country, or the closest one for us: the neighboring peak Almanzor, with 2,592 m., in Castilla y León, the highest peak of the Central System, which we encourage you to ascend like the athletes of A lung because it is a full-fledged mountaineering challenge.

The route begins at the Gredos Platform

along the stone slab path that runs to the right of the river. We follow the indications to the Laguna Grande, passing through the Prado de las Pozas bridge and gradually gaining height until we reach the Altos de los Barrerones, from where on the other side we contemplate the spectacular Gredos circus, shaped by the ice along its length. of centuries: the immense Laguna Grande surrounded by the rocky masses of Morezón, Tres Hermanitos, the Ameal de Pablo, the sharp edges of the Cuchillar de las Navajas and the giant Almanzor presiding over it. We descend along the path towards the lagoon, surrounding it to the left until the end. To the right is the Laguna Grande Shelter, formerly Elola.

From Hoya Antón (2,000 m.), right at the foot of Almanzor, the ascent begins here, which is marked by signs. Soon we enter the ascending channel, a labyrinth of large granite blocks. We turn right to climb another narrower and steeper tube that ends at the Portillón del Crampón, the last stop before the summit, and where the most aerial and complicated section begins, a chimney where we will have to use our hands to climb and overcome some steps. easy climbing. We thus pass to the other side of the mountain and

to our left, a few meters away, is Pico Almanzor

. A challenge for anyone and for the A Pulmón athletes, who demonstrate step by step, drop by drop of sweat, that there is life beyond cancer.