- Don Stranathan, 60, and Penny Blume, 50, say they share not only a daily battle for their lives but a blooming romance that helps keep them going
By Nina Golgowski
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For 60-year-old Don Stranathan and Penny Blume, 50, who met in the most unlikely of places and on different ends of the country, battling lung cancer would be near impossible if they weren't doing it together.
'We weren't looking for a relationship, but we surprised each other,' Mr Stranathan, who?s currently battling non-small-cell adenocarcinoma, told ABC News.
A divorced father of two, Mr Stranathan met Ms Blume, a mother of two herself, in 2011 through an online community called?Inspire that connects those battling and looking to discuss health issues.
Together: Seen hand-in-hand, Don Stranathan and Penny Blume are sharing not only a blooming romance from opposite parts of the country, but a fight for their lives against lung cancer
An at first unlikely match judging by location, with Mr Stranathan living in Santa Rosa, California and Ms Blume in Sullivan County, New York, the two became close over their shared interests and struggle.
After some back and forth discussing nutritional benefits in juicing - on a website they both agree to be the furthest from a dating page - it didn't take long before they checked out one another's Facebook profiles, became intrigued, and then began messaging.
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'We started chatting back and forth, different messages each day,' Mr Stranathan told ABC. 'At one time, I had over 5,000 text messages and they were mostly all with Penny.'
After first messaging one another in October, by December, they decided to meet.
'Most people meet in a public place, but you go across the country,' Ms Blume recalled one of a friend teasing her of her on-set adventure out to California.
Breaking distance: Since their diagnosis and meet in 2011, the couple say they want to spend the rest of their lives together, while traveling across the country together for their cancer treatments
Since then Ms Blume has made three trips to the West Coast while Mr Stranathanan has done the same east.
'We want to spend the rest of our lives together,' the couple not long later posted to their online friends in a note that was picked up by Inspire's communications director.
While the couple's attachment to one another was easily amplified by their cancer treatments - with Mr Stranathan scheduling his appointments to match hers with doctors on the west? and Ms Blume doing the same on the east ? they both mutually also shared the same hardship in their loved ones' reaction to their diagnosis of cancer.
Diagnosed after seeing a doctor over what she thought was her asthma flaring up after six months, Ms Blume was entirely beside herself when an X-ray instead discovered small-cell cancer in her lungs while already at an 'extensive' stage.
Her boyfriend at the time, she said, had a hard time handling it too.
'He walked out on me a week before we were talking about getting married,' Ms Blume told ABC. 'He said, "I don't love you anymore."'
Time together: Seen in Woodstock, New York, the couple have made at least six visits to opposite sides of the country in the last year to be with one another
Mr Stranathan said he had the same reaction from his girlfriend at the time.
'She knew I had lung cancer and at some point, didn't want to deal with it,' he said, who was diagnosed after a spontaneous chest X-ray in 2009.
Coming out of surgery on her adrenal gland and liver, not long after her breakup with her fianc?, Ms Blume said she never expected a single surprise waiting for her that could make her feel any less alone.
'It's hard to stay positive but every day I have Don, I feel pretty positive'
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'When I came out of recovery and got into the room, flowers were awaiting me,' she said. 'They were from Don.
'It's hard to stay positive,' she said, 'But every day I have Don, I feel pretty positive.'
'We have been seeing each other long distance for a year and have never had a disagreement,' said Mr Stranathan. 'The fact is, we are going through this together and support each other. ... We laugh a lot.'
Ms Blume's cancer has since tragically mutated though, leaving her with a large-cell lesion on her breast. She also has three lesions on her brain that have received 15 rounds of radiation.
She said her steroid treatments weaken her muscles and her double-strength radiation on her chest once burned a hole into her esophagus, preventing her from eating for weeks.
'That was the worst,' she said.
Diagnosis: Mr Stranathan, an avid hiker, was only diagnosed after a chest X-ray for a volunteer programme's requirements while Ms Blume was diagnosed after an X-ray over what she thought was her asthma acting up
Thirty-nine months after Mr Stranathan's diagnosis, including all of his own radiation, chemotherapy and oral medication, his cancer remains stable.
'I'm really fortunate,' he told ABC.
While their struggle is potentially heart breaking to hear for some, they say it's their love story, and one that keeps their own hearts going.
'Any cancer survivor has to have short-term goals, so I look forward to being with Penny. We never know what will happen to either one of us'
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'It's critical to have things like that to keep you positive,' said Mr Stranathan. 'Any cancer survivor has to have short-term goals, so I look forward to being with Penny. We never know what will happen to either one of us.'
It's also one they hope to use to save others, informing them about the importance of being screened for lung cancer.
Ms Blume notes that people should be screened whether they smoke or not, herself having quit 15 years ago and Mr Stranathan 10.
It wasn't until Mr Stranathan was tested for tuberculosis with a chest X-ray, in order to take part in a volunteer programme, that he said he first realized something was wrong.
Currently on the west coast together, the couple plan to spend the next month traveling from Las Vegas to attend Ms Blume's son's wedding to a potential trip to Yosemite.
These are all, of course, scheduled around their cancer treatments.
In February they said they hope to make a trip to Hawaii as well.
'I admire her strength,' Mr Stranathan said of Ms Blume. 'She has been through a lot in such a short time.'
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