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Man with severe lung disease completes marathon with the help of an oxygen tank
By Jesus Molina / Monday, 28 Nov 2016 04:36PM
A 62-year-old man with terminal lung disease managed to finish the Seattle Annual Marathon with the help of an oxygen tank.
This past Sunday, Evans Wilson walked through the entire 26 and a half mile race, and he did in just 10 hours and 55 minutes. He told the reporters before the marathon that he expected to complete the challenge in 14 hours and was surprised with the results. He and his wife carried oxygen tanks to succeed on the hard quest.
This past Sunday, Evans Wilson walked through the entire 26 and a half mile race with the help of an oxygen tank. Photo credit: ABC News
Wilson was a competitive runner in his earlier years but was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis (PF) in 2011, both progressive and terminal diseases. His doctors advised him not to do this race because it represented a great danger to his health, but he didn't care and went for it anyway.
"It's not good for my heart to do marathon-like work. My doctors have cleared me but they're not thrilled about it." Wilson told reporters before the race.
He has stated that, after the diagnosis, he could run a mile in just about 5 minutes, and now it takes him over an hour. The diseases make the oxygen getting into his lungs a very hard to process, and that produces a high difficult to breathe normally.
It all started when he began to feel pain in his knee, back in 2011. His doctors told him to calm down, but after he had realized that he couldn't run up a hill without being able to speak or breathe normally, he started to worry. Three years passed to the doctors define the illness that Wilson had, and they told him that the median survival time was three years.
Wilson has been living with both conditions for five years now, but just this month 6 of his friends from the pulmonary fibrosis support group passed away.
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation
Wilson told reporters that this race wasn't a personal objective for him. Presently, the pulmonary fibrosis is a disease that not everyone knows, and he did this amazing achievement to raise awareness.
When he asked his doctors for permission to do this, he told them that he expected to raise $50,000 to be donated to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF), an organization that helps any person diagnosed with the disease. This organization provides attention and medical centers for the affected people, alongside support groups and the possibility of participation in clinical trials across the country.
He explained that this "disease is incredibly underfunded," because annually, the money raised for this disease represents just one percent of the money that goes for breast cancer.
The PFF tweeted last Sunday that Wilson was an inspiration to all the people diagnosed with the disease, and also thanked greatly this amazing warrior for his achievement. They look forward to making this illness more visible and ultimately make the aids they offer even more accessible to the people.
Source: Daily Mail
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