Adrienne “Daisy” Zonneville takes part in a 6-mile training team run through the Birkdale neighborhood with the North Charlotte LKN Team in Training Group.   Daisy Zonneville greets teammates before a training run.

Adrienne “Daisy” Zonneville didn’t play sports as a kid. She spent much of her childhood working on cars with her dad – and being treated for cancer.

Now, after 15 years cancer-free, she spends six days a week gathering the energy to run one, two, six or seven miles a day. During the first few miles, she wheezes as if she has asthma. Her lungs burn. Her body screams to quit, but Zonneville won’t quit. She can’t. She runs for herself, for every person living with cancer and for those in remission.

“I refuse to lay down. You just gotta keep going,” says Zonneville, 32. “There’s life after a disease that takes a lot of people every year.”

Zonneville is enjoying that life, which is why she is training for the Kiawah Island Marathon, which raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Zonneville, of Troutman, is training with the North Charlotte Team of Team in Training. Her fiancé and close friend are also training and running with her. With the marathon, held Dec. 12-15, Zonneville hopes to raise awareness about how the money donated to cancer research helps people like herself.

Zonneville was 11 when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The cancer was behind her breast bone and in her neck. The radiation left scar tissue in her lungs, which makes physical exertion difficult. The treatment made her so sick she vomited multiple times a day. After the treatment, which included chemotherapy, doctors gave her an 85 percent chance of survival. At age 15, the cancer returned and spread throughout her abdomen. Her chances fell to 65 percent.

The spunky kid who painted daisies on her first car not only survived, but learned to appreciate every moment. She says the treatment for her cancer improved remarkably in just four years. She credits cancer research with making her second round of treatments more bearable.

“The money that people donate, the advancements that are made are phenomenal,” Zonneville says. “I’ve actually been able to enjoy another 15 years of life.”

She treats each day as a gift, but knows the cancer could return. Her battle with lymphoma makes her more susceptible to breast cancer. She gets mammograms twice a year.

“It’s like every appointment is like a weight that’s been lifted that says, ‘Here’s to another six months,’ ” she says.

She hopes participating in the marathon will give someone else who’s living with cancer another six months, and another six months and another. Her team was working to raise the $7,200 it will cost for all three to complete the Team in Training program, which is the main fundraising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Zonneville knows about raising money. As a child, her family raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover her medical bills because her parents’ insurance company dropped her. For the Kiawah marathon, Zonneville and friends held a breakfast fundraiser at a restaurant and a motorcycle charity ride.

Through the training program, Zonneville says she has learned everything from pacing to proper stretching. Many of the other runners are beginners like her, and they’ve been extremely supportive, she says. She’s often the last person to finish the weekly training run, but the other runners often wait for her. She’s an avid hiker and mountain biker, but running is more physically demanding for her.

Her fiancé, Jeff Roy, and maid-of-honor-to-be Lauren Hayward are training with Zonneville, who works as a welder and machinist in the racing industry. Roy and Zonneville have been dating for a little more than two years and engaged for seven months. Roy says he knew she was tough based on their mountain biking and hiking excursions, but her training for the marathon filled him with even more admiration.

“She’s very optimistic,” he says. “I can totally see how she’s a fighter. She keeps on going, she keeps on digging. She reaches down for that little bit extra.”

Zonneville’s fighting spirit has been an inspiration to other trainees as well, says coach Kenny Faust. He has coached for three and half years, and says trainees such as Zonneville motivate all of the participants.

“Every one of these folks who comes along, you’re still deeply touched about what they’ve been through,” says Faust. “The fact that they would try to go through the marathon program, it’s pretty amazing.”

Faust has no doubt that Zonneville will complete the program.

“We knew Daisy was going to be in it,” he says. “You could see it based on the determination. You could see based on what she’s been through this was something that she was going to do.”

Marathon training tips

A proper training period is usually four to five months.

Commit to running four days a week. Include cross-training in your program such as cycling, swimming, yoga, circuit weight-lifting and low-impact aerobics classes. Give yourself one complete day of rest to allow minor aches and pains to heal. For lingering injuries, go to a doctor.

Vary the types of runs in your training. Each week you should have one long-distance day followed by a slower-paced recovery run day to reduce soreness. For some runs use a faster pace, and for others focus on hills.

Seek advice on proper nutrition. Do not go into a long-distance running program as a weight-loss tool. But it also doesn’t give you license to eat as you please.

Vary routes, surfaces (roads, trails, treadmills, track, etc.), and even shoes (many runners rotate two pairs).

Run with a group as much as possible. Don’t let your training become boring.

Source: Kenny Faust. www.teamintraining.org/nc