After a sudden experience with difficulty breathing Jim Lierheimer was admitted to Hannibal Regional Hospital with a collapsed lung and several liters of fluid. It was ultimately determined that this was a result of mesothelioma, an aggressive and deadly form of lung cancer.

In the fall of 2020, just six weeks after her wedding, Shauna Leeser of Taylor, Missouri began having stomach issues and pain which prompted her to visit her primary care physician Dr. Erick Calmet at Hannibal Regional Medical Group. To get to the root of the issue, Dr. Calmet referred her to Dr. Khulood Ahmed, a gastroenterologist at Hannibal Regional Medical Group, for a colonoscopy. Shortly before her 40th birthday, Shauna got the shocking news that she had Stage 2 rectal cancer. “Ironically the pain I was experiencing was actually from ulcers, but during the colonoscopy they also found a tumor,” explains Shauna.