Luke Edgerton says his fiancee Catie was a kind, selfless woman. Photo: Luke Edgerton.
A South Coast man’s drive to run more than 100 kilometres this week comes from “a deep place” in his heart.
Luke Edgerton’s fiancee Catie died six months after being diagnosed with a rare cancer. The 22-year-old was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) in October 2022.
At the time, Catie was a third-year nursing student and she went on to complete her degree despite her illness.
“She [Catie] used to always worry more about the family than herself, which is a pretty courageous thing when you’re told you’re dying,” Luke said.
“It’s quite incredible how strong she was, and it’s just a testament to her character.”
Luke said there was limited information and resources given to them during her struggle.
“From diagnosis, you don’t have much information [about the cancer], at all,” he said.
“Some doctors don’t actually know what cholangiocarcinoma even is – even oncologists, which just seems crazy.”
Luke said he started running as a self-care and fitness measure after Catie’s death.
“I just stopped taking care of myself … I was originally doing it for fitness,” he said.
“I eventually started to enjoy running, and started doing races and trying to get better and better.”
He ultimately turned his fitness into fundraising, raising $6000 for Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia (CFA) last year.
This Friday (20 February), the Batemans Bay local is running 5 km on the hour, every hour, for 24 hours.
“I want people to hear about it and talk about it,” he said.
“This is a cancer that’s on the rise, and when people are diagnosed, they don’t have any information.”
According to CFA statistics, about 1300 people in Australia are diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma each year.
Luke has been working with Catie’s mum, Jill, to organise the fundraiser.
“I do the training and all the running, and she does the hard stuff – like the organisational stuff that I’m probably not as good at.”
He expects that each 5 km burst will take about 25 to 30 minutes, a little slower than his normal time.
Catie, seen here with Luke, died just six months after her diagnosis. Photo: Supplied.
For the past few months Luke’s been running 100 kilometres each week, even hitting the pavement for a 5 km run during his lunch breaks.
“It’s just what you have to do to condition your body to be fit enough to do it,” he said of the challenge.
“You just have to run and run and run … Last week was my last big day. Now, I’m having a few days of kicking my feet up, resting the bones, as they say.”
Mayor Mathew Hatcher will be joining him for the first 5 km stretch, before he tackles the rest of the day solo.
“I doubt there’ll be any sleep!
“But realistically, if on the stroke of the hour, I’m running for half an hour, then I’ve got half an hour rest … I doubt much sleep will be happening,” he said.
While 120 kilometres may be a greater distance than most of us run in a year, Luke’s already planning something bigger.
“I’ll be doing something for sure, but I’ve just got to figure out what. … I need to come up with something a bit more punchy, a bit more dramatic and one up it for next year,” he said.
It’s all guided by his main goal of raising awareness of CFA, and the “information, support and hope” the organisation offers to other people suffering from cholangiocarcinoma.
“It’s not just the memory of Catie that I’m doing it for … [That diagnosis] feels scary, really scary.
“You just want to hide. … If me raising money or raising awareness can promote more help, more funding, then it can only help people in the future.”
The 24-hour run will start at 2 pm on Friday at the Hanging Rock Sports Complex on Hanging Rock Place in Batemans Bay.
Donate to Luke’s fundraising efforts through the Cholangio Challengers platform.
