“GOD PUT US IN THE RIGHT PLACE”

Phillipsburg, Kan. (July 14, 2025) – It was gastrointestinal problems that saved Michelle Tharman’s life.

When the Long Island, Kan. woman went to the doctor to figure out her stomach pain, they discovered she had a rare form of cancer.

In the spring of 2024, she had lost 40 pounds, her stomach was always upset, and she couldn’t leave the house, always having to be near a bathroom. Doctors in Kearney, Neb. couldn’t figure out what was wrong. They tried to schedule her for a gastrointestinal specialist in Lincoln, but there were no openings.

So she and her husband Ken decided to take matters into their own hands.

They drove to Omaha to the emergency room at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

There, the medical staff fixed her gastro problem… and found a bigger problem.

Cancer.

Tharman had a rare form of cancer, myxoid liposarcoma, a tumor in her right thigh. It was a lump down the side and back of her leg that didn’t cause pain, and because of her stomach issues, she didn’t pay any attention to it.

Tharman started radiation treatment, doing six weeks of treatment, five days a week. Because of the rarity of the cancer, her medical staff wanted her to stay close to the hospital for radiation. She lived with her son Alex, his wife Karen and their two young children in the Omaha area.

Doctors removed the tumor in September 2024, and she wore an immobilizer brace for six weeks, to keep the wound from opening if she bent her leg.

She wasn’t able to drive, and to keep her leg straight in the brace, her husband removed the passenger seat from the vehicle so she could sit in the back seat with her leg extended.

Tharman received a check from Hope in the Heartland, the charity arm of Kansas Biggest Rodeo. Each year, the rodeo raises money on its Tough Enough to Wear Pink night. For every fan wearing pink on the Thursday night of rodeo (this year, July 31), $1 is donated to the fund by the Phillipsburg Rodeo Association. Eight local organizations match the rodeo’s donation: A&A Coors, Amber Wave, B&B Redimix Inc., Blossoms and Butterflies, Farmers State Bank, W.B. DesJardins Fund, Rodgers and Associates and Witmer Drug.

When she got the check, she was “surprised, I really was,” she said. The donated money was helpful in buying fuel to travel back and forth from home to Omaha, and in buying meals and groceries for her son and his family as she stayed at their house.

Two major obstacles hindered her road to recovery. During the first hospitalization for the colostomy placement, she coded and nearly died, due to pain medications. Then, in November 2024, she had intestinal blockages so severe she was helicoptered to Omaha.

Now, Tharman is doing physical therapy to strengthen her right leg. She’s looking forward to being able to do simple things.

“If I can put on my own socks without having someone help me, or paint my toenails, that’s my goal,” she said.

“When they ask me how I’m doing, I say, I’m not running any races, but I wasn’t before (the cancer treatment), so that’s probably OK. I wasn’t a jogger or marathon runner, so it’s OK,” she joked.

She’s grateful for the help from the pink night at the rodeo. “I like that the fund isn’t strictly for one kind of cancer,” she said, “because there are so many types.”

She goes to the hospital for scans every three months, to check for cancer recurrences.

She believes it was God’s intervention that caused the doctors to find the cancer.

“I believe wholly that the doctors not figuring out my digestive issues earlier led us to the right hospital and the right physicians who not only found solutions to my gastro problems, but found my cancer.

“God put us in the right place at the right time, to heal me.”

And she’s enjoying her life with her husband, kids, and grandkids.

The Phillipsburg Rodeo has held a Tough Enough to Wear Pink night every year since 2006. In the last 20 years, the rodeo has raised over $160,000 for people in the area undergoing cancer treatment. One hundred percent of donations are given out; nothing is held back for administrative costs.

This year’s Kansas Biggest Rodeo will be held July 31-August 2. Shows start at 8 pm nightly.

Tickets are available online at KansasBiggestRodeo.com and at Garrett Insurance (685 Third Street, Phillipsburg) or by calling 785.543.2448.

Tickets range in price from $13-$22.

For more information, visit the website or call 785.543.2448.