Assemblywoman tackles issues – and a grave illness

A devout Christian, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner suffers from a fatal disease but said she doesn't pray to God for the one thing likely to save her life: someone else's death.

"I just feel like whatever's meant to be, will be," she said.

The Lancaster Republican suffers from a rare disease that is ravaging her lungs and has no known cure. She is on a transplant waiting list for two new lungs, knowing that her family's joy would spring from another's tragedy.

"I don't pray for healing," Runner said of her plight. "I pray more for God's will to be done."

Runner doesn't ordinarily discuss her religion with reporters and doesn't proselytize. But when asked about her disease, limited scleroderma, the 53-year-old lawmaker said she finds comfort in God, family and public service.

Her message is simple: Don't pity me. Consider helping others through organ donation. Most of all, treasure your own life.

"Take one day at a time, and don't stress so much," she said.

Twenty-four hours a day, Runner keeps a phone by her side, awaiting word that an organ donor has been found. Meanwhile, medications appear to be keeping her disease at bay. But if her life can't be saved, she's mentally prepared.

"I'm not fearful of dying," she said. "I'm so blessed by the life I've had and the family I've had."

Switching gears, Runner pokes fun at herself.

Some patients run marathons after a lung transplant. Don't expect that of her, she said, setting up the punch line:

"I'd need not just a lung transplant, but leg transplants."

Wife of Republican Sen. George Runner, Sharon Runner is known by colleagues as the "Funner Runner." Her illness hasn't cost her the title, she quips, but "I don't get out as much as I used to."

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, applauds Runner as a role model.

"She's still carrying a legislative package, still attending to her family – this illness hasn't stopped her from her passion, which is community," Garcia said. "She's carrying her weight and more."

Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, said he's amazed that Runner – who sometimes gets winded walking just 30 yards from her office to that of her husband – has a "smile on her face every day."

"She knows she's facing a huge surgery and potential complications, but you'd never know it on a day-to-day basis," he said.

Runner responded with an aw-shucks.

"I can't see me sitting home, thinking, 'Oh, I'm just waiting for lungs,' " said Runner, best known for sponsoring Proposition 83, Jessica's Law, a successful 2006 initiative to tighten restrictions on paroled sex offenders.

An evangelical Christian who helped found Desert Christian School in Lancaster three decades ago, she recited by heart a biblical passage from Proverbs that gives her comfort: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path."

Runner was diagnosed more than 20 years ago with limited scleroderma, or CREST syndrome. But the autoimmune disease, affecting connective tissue, did not seriously impair her lungs until late 2006.

The Runners were at their cabin off Highway 50 near Lake Tahoe nearly two years ago when she found herself struggling to walk a quarter-mile – odd, because she loves hiking.

"I just felt like the elevation was getting to me," she said.

Months later, the Runners were visiting Russia, and she panted while climbing staircases.

"I was totally out of breath," she said.

Back in the United States, pulmonary tests were sobering.

Dr. David J. Ross, medical director of the lung transplant program at the UCLA Medical Center, said Runner's lungs now operate at less than 30 percent of capacity, her disease is deadly, and there is no medicinal cure.

The UCLA center has performed 15 lung transplants for scleroderma patients in the past four years, achieving a 95 percent survival rate in the first year after surgery, he said.

Ross said the GOP legislator is not receiving preferential treatment for organs, which are distributed based on many factors, including urgency of need, blood type and size compatibility.

Runner is one of 171 people waiting for lung transplants in California. Median waiting time last year was nearly five months, records show.

Thirty-seven people died in California last year while waiting for an organ transplant.

Runner is optimistic, playful, joking that her biggest fear is not the transplant itself but "throwing up" afterward.

What the heck, Runner said, once doctors make the incision to reach her lungs, they might as well work on her breasts, too.

"Can't they just lift them up?" she quipped.

The Runners, parents of two grown children, celebrated the birth of their third grandchild, James, three months ago. Runner is determined to see the infant grow up.

Though she's not in constant pain, Runner attaches tubes to her nose every night through which a device pumps adequate oxygen.

Catching an infection could prove disastrous, so she keeps antibacterial lotion on her desk each day and cleans her hands nearly a dozen times.

She takes about 20 pills a day, all kinds of medications, ranging from antibiotics to an "oral chemotherapy."

Runner, only 5 feet 4 inches tall, suffers from a related esophageal problem that makes it hard for her to swallow. Her weight has dropped from 135 pounds to 115.

Pity her? Don't.

"A lot of people have chronic diseases," said Runner, one of about 300,000 people nationwide who suffer from scleroderma.

"If people feel they want to do something," she said, "they can register to donate organs (for others)."

Even a fatal illness has a silver lining because it prompts reflection on life's blessings, she said.

"It's fortunate that I have a little more time to say things that maybe I wouldn't get to say if I died crossing the street."

About the writer:

• Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.