Patient Honoree Potluck

This is Byron, one of the speakers at the Patient Honoree Potluck we had last Saturday. He is a familiar face to everyone in Team in Training because he has trained for many events and mentored many participants over the last several years.
He told us his story. He was hugely overweight, smoked 2 packs a day, and was a heavy drinker when he was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. There is no cure at present, but it is also a relatively slow progressing blood cancer, so he decided to change how he was living. His doctor said he would die much sooner if he didn't lose some weight and get in shape, so he did it. He lost 150 pounds and started training for half marathons, then marathons, then triathlons, and now is planning to run a full ironman this summer, which by the way consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26 mile run! Five years after he was diagnosed, the doctors found cancer in his spine, and he received a chemotherapy drug developed through the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. He was told to expect it to take at least a year before he could start running again, but he ended up struggling through and finishing a 10k run 10 weeks after chemotherapy.
Byron is a great example of someone who knows firsthand the impact that Team in Training has in bringing hope to those affected by cancer.

-- Dan