Cancer surgeon runs the globe to raise testicular cancer awareness
Key takeaways:
- A cancer surgeon ran the World Marathon Challenge, completing seven marathons on seven continents in 6 days.
- He raised more than $125,000 for Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation.
Clark Gamblin, MD, MS, MBA, ran “on the moon” in Antarctica, under hang gliders in South Africa, and next to a starlit ocean in Australia.
And he did it in less than a week.
Gamblin, vice chair of clinical operations for the department of surgery at Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin, ran more than 150 miles on seven continents in 6 days during this year’s World Marathon Challenge.
He saw beauty that rivaled Tom Hanks’ majestic run across the United States in the 1994 Academy Award winning film “Forrest Gump.”
However, his travels around the globe do not compare to the more than $125,000 he raised for Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation (TCAF).
“The race is just a race. It’s just a run — anybody could do it,” Gamblin told Healio. “People ask me all the time, how’d you get qualified to run that race? You write a check. If you have the money, they’ll let you go. You may not finish. They’re not going to let you walk the seven marathons.”
Thanks to his efforts, Gamblin now is the largest individual fundraiser in TCAF’s history, which he described as the “important” part of his journey.
“I’m just super grateful to all the people who believed in me,” he said. “I was blown away by the number of people who messaged me and sent financial support, sent prayers my way, or just encouraged me. It was just unbelievable.”
Gamblin’s journey began with a board meeting, an unusual birthday activity and — ironically — a cancer diagnosis.
‘I’m a little twisted’
Gamblin — whose surgical practice focuses on hepatobiliary cancer and other gastrointestinal malignancies — enjoyed running during his younger days, even competing in a few marathons during medical school. However, he got away from that as he built his career and raised a family.
In 2017, while attending an American Liver Foundation board meeting in New York, a colleague entered the room and said the organization had extra jerseys for the Boston Marathon.
“‘Next year, it would be great if we could get a board member to run,’” the man said. “I looked around the room and realized they were talking to me. I said, ‘When is it?’ It happened to be on my birthday, and I said, ‘It’d be great to train for Boston and get back in it.’”
It rained during the marathon, which easily could have dampened Gamblin’s experience.
It did not.
“It was a horrible day, but I still enjoyed it,” Gamblin said. “I’m a little twisted like that, I guess.”
A couple months later, Gamblin discovered a lump on his scrotum.
He thought his return to running caused varicocele but, as a cancer surgeon, he decided not to take any chances and practiced what he preached to his patients.
Gamblin got an ultrasound, and he did not need his clinician to give him the news.
“I use ultrasound every day in the operating room for liver surgery,” he said. “The second he was doing the ultrasound, I could see when he turned flow on there was no blood flow in it. It was a solid mass.”
Gamblin had a stage I seminoma, a type of testicular cancer.
“I was scheduled to be in Switzerland the next week to give some medical talks,” he said. “When I walked over and talked to the urologist that I had operated with many times to say I needed an operation, he was like, ‘What’s your next week look like?’ I was like, ‘It’s wide open.’ I decided Zurich can wait.”
Gamblin underwent surgery and chemotherapy, and he turned to running to get him through the difficult time.
“I found running to be a great release of stress,” he said. “It coincided, strangely enough, with a divorce I was going through. I was battling cancer and acknowledging a failed marriage of 21 years at the same time. It was a stressful time, and running really helped me navigate through that.”
Lofty goal
Gamblin does not believe people set their goals high enough.
“We’re just tremendously afraid of failure,” he said. “We’re very cautious and risk averse in what we are willing to even think about doing. That’s not me.”
After receiving treatment for his cancer, Gamblin set a goal of running the major marathons of the world: Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin, London and Tokyo.
Gamblin crossed that finish line in 5 years. Then he started looking for a new goal.
It came from a sibling of Gamblin’s fraternity little brother.
Gamblin received a message about the World Marathon Challenge: seven marathons in 7 days on seven continents.
“I was just fascinated by it,” Gamblin said. “The logistics alone are kind of mind blowing. Then, as I began to really think about it, I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
Gamblin had run with individuals who had already completed the challenge and picked their brains.
“It was probably April of last year that I started to say to people, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to run this race,’” Gamblin said. “The responses were always like a little bewildered look — them looking at me like I had lost my mind.”
‘Blown away’
It cost $48,000 to enter the World Marathon Challenge.
At first, Gamblin figured he could save and enter within a few years.
“It’s like buying a car or something,” he said.
Then he had a different idea.
He thought the challenge could be a great fundraising opportunity. He could get corporate sponsors to pay for his entrance and use the race to encourage people to donate toward testicular cancer.
“We could tell people as they gave $100 or $50 or $1,000 — whatever they might give — that 100% of their gift is being used for the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation,” Gamblin said. “None of it would be used for the race.”
Testicular cancer affects one in 250 men in the United States, and it is the most common malignancy among men aged 15 to 44 years, according to TCAF.
However, the cure rate is 95% when detected early.
TCAF supports the fight against the malignancy through financial assistance for individuals and families affected, as well as educational efforts, and outreach and awareness programs.
Kim Jones, founder and CEO of TCAF, recalled when Gamblin first reached out.
Her reaction?
“Gratitude!” she said. “Our first conversation was about how Clark wanted to help change the trajectory of TCAF by helping raise a substantial amount of money and the much-needed funds for the fight.”
Gamblin began talking with professional fundraisers about the race. They all suggested he crowdfund the project.
“I’m not going to have my friends give me $50 to go run around the globe,” he responded.
He got the same message from Roger Magowitz, founder and CEO of The Seena Magowitz Foundation, a foundation that supports people affected by pancreatic cancer.
Gamblin politely responded he did not want to go that route. A couple days later, Magowitz called him back.
“He said, ‘Hey Clark, you’re a liver surgeon, right? My daughter Melissa died 2 years ago from a liver disease at the age of 35,’” Gamblin said. “I was like, ‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’ and he said, ‘She loved to travel. My wife and I want to be the first ones to just help fund your sponsorships. If you would run in her memory, we would like to donate.’ I was blown away by that.”
Multiple sponsorships came in after that, from Gerald W and Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation, Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin, Brewers Community Foundation Inc., Vander Galien Family, Stein Garden Centers and Baird Foundation.
It became real. Gamblin was going to run around the world.
‘I wouldn’t change anything’
The marathon of marathons began in Antarctica, followed by stops in Cape Town, South Africa; Perth, Australia; Dubai; Madrid; Fortaleza, Brazil; and, finally, Miami.
“The schedule was essentially you run a marathon and then, as quickly as everybody can get back on the plane, you fly to the next place, you go through customs, and you go to the next marathon,” Gamblin said. “It might take 45 minutes to an hour to set that marathon up, but after that you run again.”
Gamblin had no issues through the first three races, but he developed a runner’s lean in Dubai, and he started feeling pain in his back after Madrid.
“In Madrid we ran on an F1 track, and I don't know if it was sleeping on a plane for 5 days, if it was being almost 56 years old, if it was running on the F1 track, or if it was just sheer mileage, but I started to have some low-back spasms,” he said.
Gamblin had concerns about finishing the Brazil and Miami races, and he decided to run half marathons in both to close out the challenge. The challenge finished 1 day earlier than planned.
“There’s a few things you might do differently — small things. But as far as the experience and what I was able to accomplish — and what I was able to live that week — I wouldn’t change anything about it,” he said.
Raise awareness and inspire
The sights Gamblin saw during his run felt out of this world at times.
“The Antarctica race is like none other. It’s like running on the moon,” Gamblin said. “You look to the left, you look to the right, there are no mountains, there are no trees, there are no animals. It’s just frozen ice as far as you can see. It was so surreal.
“When you're running in Cape Town, and you look over your shoulder and you see Table Mountain up there, and you see hang gliders come into the field that you’re running around, and you’re running by the ocean. It was beautiful.
“In Perth, we ran beside the ocean at night. It was probably 10 or 11 at night when we started running. The stars were all out, and we ran into the stars by the ocean. Each one just had so much beauty to it.”
In Miami, friends and family — including Gamblin’s wife Jan, whom he married 2 years ago and describes as his “number one fan” — waited to celebrate with him.
Those picturesque scenes were only part of the experience, though.
Throughout the week, he thought about Melissa Smith, Roger Magowitz’s daughter, and Smith’s husband and two children.
He thought about his friend Adam Berger, MD, FACS, who served as associate director for shared resources and as the head of the soft tissue oncology program at Rutgers Cancer Institute before his death in October.
And he thought about all the people his run could benefit.
As of early March, Gamblin’s trek around the world had raised $125,868 of his $250,000 goal.
“Overwhelming,” Jones said of the support.
Gamblin has been an “inspiration” both for his participation in the World Marathon Challenge as well as his openness to discuss his experience with testicular cancer, Jones added.
And Gamblin is not done. He wants to reach — and exceed — his fundraising goal.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll continue to gain momentum,” Gamblin said. “The goals of doing this were to raise awareness about testicular cancer and then inspire others. I think we’ve done that, but we have not finished.”
References:
- Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation. https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org/. Accessed March 18, 2025.
- Doctor and cancer survivor conquers 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days. https://www.pledge.to/7-marathons-7-continents-7-days. Accessed March 18, 2025.
For more information:
Clark Gamblin, MD, MS, MBA, can be reached at tcgamblin@mcw.edu. Follow him on Instagram @tclarkgamblin.
Kim Jones can be reached at kim@testescancer.org.
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