Jeff Brown: Bohn takes on cancer with heart of a champion

By JEFF BROWN / Tribune sports editor

GALESVILLE, Wis. — The little things that used to irritate LeaAnn Bohn, the things that test your patience time after time, don’t really matter any more. No more getting upset, no more losing sleep, no more worrying.

Well, not nearly as much.

Bohn, the gymnastics coach for the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/ Melrose-Mindoro/ Cochrane-Fountain City program, has a big-picture look at life that one of those big, flat screen televisions couldn’t do justice. Bohn, you see, knows that living life to its fullest each hour, each day, is what is most important. That tends to happen when someone, in point-blank fashion, tells you that your next breath, your next day, your next month, is not guaranteed. None of us holds that guarantee, but Bohn’s situation was different than most of us. On June 25, 2007 — the day of her daughter’s birthday — she received the news that she had breast cancer. A lump in one of her breasts was malignant, creating a lump in her throat that is difficult to explain unless you, too, have either been told you have the dreaded “c” disease, or know somebody who has.

Bohn, 38, obviously, was devastated by the news. She has two young children, and a husband named Brian. She has so much more to give to them, to give to life, to receive from life, that it wasn’t fair. Cancer doesn’t care. Cancer just happens. It happens to healthy people, those not so healthy, and people in between.

This is where Bohn’s story could turn sad. It could take a deep, dark turn with no return. It won’t. Bohn won’t let it.

Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she reached deep within and pulled herself together just like she has told so many gymnasts to do over the years who fell, but needed to get right back up.

You don’t get to be a champion in gymnastics without setbacks, without challenges, without obstacles. And you don’t get to choose what happens to you in life at times either.

The champion in Bohn told her this, and pushed her at times when she didn’t want to be pushed.

She went through 41/2 months of chemotherapy, then got a bit of a break before starting radiation treatments on Jan. 7. She has 33 radiation treatments that end Feb. 22, the day of the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School.

“There are times I said I wasn’t going to treatment anymore. It’s just gross what it does to you, the way you feel,” Bohn said. “I had six chemotherapy treatments six weeks apart. There were days I just felt like I wanted to stay home.”

Her family, her friends and her team provided the inspiration, the pull if you will, that drew her out of the house and to the Blue Angels Gymnastics Club in Galesville, Wis., where the G/M/C team works out.

“I stayed positive for the girls as well as myself,” Bohn said. “Brian came back in the gym and did some coaching. That really helped me, and the girls. Gymnastics is my energy medicine.”

It’s a medicine that she might consider bottling. If you take one look at Bohn, you had better make it a quick one. Why? On Saturday, for example, she was running all over the place at the 12-team G/M/C Invitational. She was coaching her talented team; she was making sure the meet was running smoothly; she was answering questions from all sorts of folks, including those wondering just what “Flip for a Cause” was all about.

Flip for a Cause is a combination of fundraising events centered around gymnastics and gymnasts. At Saturday’s G/M/C Invitational, for example, there were T-shirts and other things being sold. There were buckets for donations. There were businesses who sponsored the meet, and backed the cause.

Since the end of December, Bohn said Flip for a Cause has raised more than $7,000. That’s $7,000 that will go to the Susan G. Komen and LeRoy Butler foundations, both of which raise funds in support of breast cancer research.

“It’s been a rude awakening for me, my family and the girls on the team,” Bohn said. “It’s been an educational awakening, too. I believe everything happens for a reason. My reason (for getting cancer) is to give others more education about breast cancer.

“You know your body more better than anyone. If you don’t feel right, if your doctor tells you something and you still feel differently, push the issue. You have a right to a second opinion,” Bohn said. “I am very fortunate I did that.”

Bohn recently had a six-month evaluation, and there are no signs of cancer. The radiation treatments should only cement that diagnosis. Then every six months for the next five years, she’ll go back for a checkup.

Life, Bohn quickly says, is good.

“I’ve learned not to take everything so seriously. Not to get stressed out and worry about the little things,” Bohn said. “I hate to hear people complain.”

In other words, but thankful for what you have — especially if you have good health.

Jeff Brown can be reached at (608) 791-8403 or jbrown@lacrossetribune.com.