GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – When Marine Corps veteran Casey Kroner began experiencing severe back pain, his wife, Ashton, says they got a variety of answers from the VA.
“They were telling him everything from IBS to ‘it’s in your head’ to ‘it’s a muscle strain,’” Ashton said, herself a Marine Corps veteran of eight years.
Recommended Videos
Frustrated with the lack of answers, Ashton says Casey finally sought help at a civilian hospital. The diagnosis was devastating: Stage 3A testicular cancer. The cancer had already metastasized, causing stage 1 kidney failure.
“He hit every single mark that they teach oncologists and surgeons in the textbook of what to look out for,” Ashton said. “He ended up going sepsis, ended up in the ICU and almost passing away. He got blood clots - anything that could have gone wrong definitely went wrong.”
“I said if you wanted my attention you could have just asked for it. You didn’t need to go through all of this for it,” she said.
Through the fight, Casey came out on top. He rang the bell four years ago, but the mission hasn’t stopped.
That unexpected path led the Kroners to launch the Veteran Cancer Network, a nonprofit focused on improving early cancer detection and screening for veterans.
Their mission gained urgency when they discovered they weren’t alone.
“We found that there were other veterans that we served with who also had cancer, and it was also late-stage cancer diagnosis,” Ashton said. “In fact, two of them ended up passing away from that.”
Ashton said the current screening system doesn’t properly account for exposure to environmental hazards. She said the standard of getting screened at a specific age does not account for veterans.
“We have burn pit exposures... there’s just so much that we’re being exposed to,” she explained. “It’s very frustrating knowing that we’re off to save our democracy, but for us to come home and be sick, and have to fight just to get seen by doctors and to be able to get the testing - it can feel like we’re being forgotten at times.”
This June, the Kroners are taking their advocacy on the road - literally. They’re planning a bicycle ride from their home in Green Cove Springs, Florida, to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress for reform in veteran cancer screening policies.
Their goals include:
- Implementing exposure history-based screening protocols
- Expanding access to multi-cancer early detection blood screening tests
- Encouraging civilian healthcare providers to inquire about military service history
“We would love to have a proper Clay County kickoff over there,” Ashton said.
The Kroners’ bicycle journey to Washington begins June 13 from Green Cove Springs. To learn more about their mission or support their work, visit veterancancernetwork.org.