Outrunning the Demons by Phil Hewitt
Author:Phil Hewitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472956521
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Don Wright
‘I am exceedingly lucky to be here.’
Doctors told Don Wright he had five years left to live when he was diagnosed with myeloma. Thirteen years later, he crossed the line in his ‘100th marathon with cancer’. The word with is crucial: he’s not running from cancer, he’s running with it.
Don, from Stillwater, Minnesota, was a fast runner as a youngster, but life intervenes and he didn’t get back to running until he was in his early 60s. In 2002, about a year and a half before Don was diagnosed with myeloma, his brother-in-law Calvin invited him to run a race. Don admits he did very badly. It was just a 5k, and he finished red-faced and in a disappointing time. But he was already trying to lose weight through Weight Watchers, and there was something about running that just clicked, so Don decided simply to keep on running.
One of his highlights so far has been the Minnesota Distance Running Association Grand Prix, a statewide competition that features 13 races in a year, ranging from a mile to a marathon. Don was the winner in 2006 at the age of 65 – remarkably good going for someone who was already well past the halfway mark in the five years he was told he had left to live in 2003.
Don had gone to the doctor’s two or three times with a pain in his back. On the latest visit, the doctor ordered some blood tests. A few days later, Don received an evening phone call. The doctor told him he had scheduled an appointment for Don with an oncologist.
I denied it right away. I told him that runners have very strange blood test results. The doctor told me: ‘Not strange like this they don’t.’
Don went along to the appointment with the oncologist, who turned out to be a haematologist. The diagnosis was a stark one – myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer. Don sought a second opinion at the University of Minnesota. The second opinion was effectively a confirmation. Don was told he had three to five years to live – news that brought his remaining years into a very sharp and different focus. As he says, suddenly he could see his bucket list ‘a little bit more clearly’, and on that bucket list was the Boston Marathon.
Don, variously an attorney and a computer consultant, had run his first marathon three weeks before his diagnosis, but not in a time to qualify him for Boston. That hadn’t bothered him; Boston hadn’t been on his radar. But now it was – so he ran two more marathons, both of which brought him the sub-four qualifying time he needed. Crucial support in everything came from his family: Ardis, his wife of more than 50 years, and their daughter, Sarah. Both have been his companion on countless trips to clinics – and on numerous marathons too. Don ticked off Boston and enjoyed it. The travel, the marathon, the whole experience was rather fun. Don had already done a number of marathons in his home state of Minnesota.
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