UWA student Leon Stone was 20-years-old when he was diagnosed in 2011 with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that typically affects people under the age of 25. By the next year, Leon had sadly passed away.
Local athlete and good friend of LA Fit Nathan Kammann met Leon whilst studying together at UWA. Inspired by Leon’s resilience and determination during the last year of his life, Nathan decided to raise money and awareness of sarcoma through his international triathlon training and racing – 70.3 for Stoney was born.
After raising nearly $20K in 2017, 70.3 for Stoney is back in 2019 with a 5km Fun Run in March. All LA Fit clients are welcome to join!
We caught up with Nathan to ask him about the event, and his marathon training at LA Fit.
How did your friendship with Leon and his story inspire you to be so active in your advocacy for osteosarcoma?
Leon loves sport and would give anything a go. He had the courage to amputate his leg in an attempt to save his life and he didn’t even let that slow him down. So he is always close to my mind reminding me how fortunate it is to have good health and that motivates me to push my limits in endurance sport.
You raised nearly $20K in 2018 for osteosarcoma research. How much are you hoping to raise this year?
It may sound cliche but every dollar helps. $20k would mean we could fund another research grant for the year. If I have to keep running to raise that amount then I will give it my best shot.
Your running the Comrades Marathon this year to honour Leon. How’s training going?
Preparing for a 90km run does take a fair bit of time and some sacrifices in other aspects of my life. I’m running six days per week at the moment and a long training run is now upwards of three hours. I am grateful I get to pursue this sport and running along our coast is a good place to be.
You do two Megaformer classes a week. How has it improved your running fitness?
As Jaz says in class “the more you push the tighter your toosh!” It really has been key for me to work on that pelvic stability and core strength. It makes me a more efficient runner and definitely helps with injury prevention and fatigue resistance.
What other LA Fit workouts do you recommend for avid runners?
I got the chance to Ride with KTX last month and it was awesome! It was a great cardio session. Lots of my running training is solo so it was really motivating to train in a group. I am keen to give Tri with Morgan a crack too!
Can you give us wannabe runners some training tips for the 5km Fun Run on 31 March?
Whether you run fast, slow, far or not you should call yourself a runner. Our fundraiser is going to celebrate every body because the most important thing is that at any pace and in any race you can make a difference. For me that difference is trying to help young people affected by cancer.
70.3 for Stoney raises money for the Australasian Sarcoma Study Group memorial research grant which was established after Leon’s passing.
Sarcoma research receives less than 1% of the cancer research dollar. Make a difference for young people living with cancer.
Help Nathan raise money for sarcoma research on the 70.3 for Stoney 5km Fun Run.
