By Jessica Honigford
Community Post
When Chuck Augustine started feeling under the weather in 2004, the doctors thought he had issues with his gull bladder.  As time went on Augustine grew sicker, still not knowing what was causing his illness.  Finally, after months of being sick, Augustine got his answer on Dec. 15, 2004: a tumor on his pancreas. 

Augustine immediately made arrangements to see a specialist  at the clinic at University Hospital in Cleveland to have a Whipple operation performed.  The doctors were confident they had caught the cancer early enough for the surgery to be a success and told him that the longer he stayed in surgery the better.  On Dec. 27, 2004 the operation began.  The surgery had barely begun and it was already over.  “They basically explored and immediately closed me back up,” Augustine said.  “They told me ‘you need to get your things in order’.”
Augustine’s pancreatic cancer was stage four, a virtual death-sentence in the medical world.  “Three to six weeks was what one doctor said,” Augustine recalled.  “Another gave me three months.  None gave me any chance.”
Augustine learned his apparent fate while still under heavy sedation from the operation.  His family, struggling with the news in the hospital waiting room, watched as a commercial for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America came across the television.  Augustine’s sister immediately began pushing for him to pursue his options through the center.
After a three-day consultation with the doctors he was receiving an aggressive chemotherapy regimen by the next week.
Augustine’s treatment was intense.  Some of his chemotherapy drips would last up to 11 hours.  A catheter drip allowed the chemo treatment to go directly to the tumor so as little would go into Augustine’s system as possible.
“I couldn’t move at all so I tried to sleep as much as I could,” Augustine said.
Augustine traveled to Chicago with his sister or his girlfriend, Minster-native Dawn Oldiges.  Oldgies is running a marathon in October to raise money for pancreatic cancer research.
“They were constantly on the phone monitoring how I was doing,” Augustine said.  “Sometimes they would call and just ask ‘are your fingernails breaking?’.”
Through it all, Oldiges was there to support Augustine. 
“Dawn would make me get up and walk around,” Augustine said.  “So much of it is attitude.  There were four or five people on the same floor as me and people would come up to me and asked me to talk to their daughter who has given up hope.”
During the first three months of his treatment Augustine went from 205 pounds down to 130 pounds.  “It was quite a change for my body,” he said.  “At one point Dawn told me I was skinny, green and bald.”
By the third treatment the tumor on Augustine’s pancreas had shrunk 45 percent, and the spots on the liver had gone down even further.
When Augustine went back for a routine CT scan in October of 2005, something unbelievable happened.
“There was nothing there,” he said.  “I went to Chicago for another scan and they confirmed the same thing.  There was no cancer there.”
“Dawn and her kids were a good part of helping me get better,” Augustine said.
Augustine has been cancer free for the past four and a half years, something miraculous considering he had been told he had less than two months to live, just a year before his cancer-free scan.
Oldiges feels Augustine’s story is a strong motivator for people to keep hope alive.
She is currently training by running dozens of miles a week for the Chicago Marathon.
“It’s just something I feel I need and want to do,” she said.
Oldiges must raise $2,900 for her marathon run and is currently sitting at $850.
Augustine says he is so thankful for those who have donated already.
“Dawn is such an amazing person for doing this,” Augustine.  “She thinks that by getting my story out there, maybe more people will donate.”
Oldiges recently participated in a 5K with a man who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“He was just diagnosed and is going through treatment and you think ‘is he going to be here next year?’,” she said.
Anyone wishing to donate in Oldges’ name can log on to www.pancan.org.  Interested people can also pick up a donation form from Oldgies at the Francis J. Stallo Memorial Library in Minster.