America's True Heroes
We can all find hope in the stories of five people who overcame serious illness or injury on their way to triumph.
by Bruce E. Beans
The health challenges life deals us can seem overwhelming at times. But modern medicine and the indomitable human spirit help a lot of Americans overcome serious setbacks and move on to triumph.
In many respects, the five people cited here are just ordinary folks. But there’s nothing ordinary about the way they’ve overcome obstacles. If you find yourself facing your own health challenge, now or in the future, take heart from their stories.
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Product manager
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Health issue: Breast cancer in 1990, at age 37, required a modified radical mastectomy, lymph node removal, chemotherapy and breast reconstruction.
Initial reaction: Shock and loneliness.
Greatest challenge: “Trying to keep your life on an even keel and trying to live a normal life, because it’s not normal anymore.
Support: Her family, including her brother, a doctor. She also joined the Cancer Support Community in San Francisco.
Accomplishments: Since her illness, Ms. Fox has climbed mountains, completed minitriathlons and helped set up the first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in San Francisco. Now product manager of Mentor Corporation’s Breast Aesthetics reconstruction implant division, she works on educational and outreach programs that reach thousands of women with breast cancer.
Philosophy: “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, but cancer turned out to be a life-altering, positive experience. It helps you focus and realize what is or isn’t important. The most important thing is to know that you will come through this. You will have discovered things about yourself you didn’t know — mainly how strong you are. That strength will continue for the rest of your life.”
Nate Offerdahl, 32
Plant worker and
union president
Youngstown, Ohio
Health issue: A heart attack at age 30 required four coronary artery bypasses, an implanted defibrillator and, later, four stents to help keep arteries open.
Initial reaction: “At 30, I never imagined I could have a heart attack.”
Greatest challenge: “Both eating healthy and exercising are difficult, the latter because I had to make a conscious decision that exercise is the one thing in the day that doesn’t get compromised.
Support: Family, including wife Jami and daughters Grace, 7, and Clare, 3; and local YMCA triathlon club.
Accomplishments: A packa- day smoker who drank heavily, ate poorly and did no exercise, he carried 260 pounds on his 6-foot frame. He has quit smoking, lost 80 pounds and works out daily, including running, cycling and swimming. He has finished several minitriathlons and three halfmarathons. President of the Communications Workers of America union unit at Lexington Connector Seals, an automotive supplier, he now speaks on behalf of the American Heart Association.
Philosophy: “You cannot believe how much better your life will be once you strip away all the useless [stuff]. I feel so much better at 180 pounds that not a day goes by that I don’t wonder how I ever pushed 260 pounds around. Also, whether at the age of 20 or not, your actions have consequences. The last thing you want to go through is major surgery at a young age."
|  Heath Calhoun (left) with Ryan Kelly. |
Wounded Warrior Project
Roanoke, Va.
Health issue: As a squad leader with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division in Iraq at age 24, he lost both legs above the knee after his truck was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade on Nov. 7, 2003.
Initial reaction: “It never bothered me until I put on prosthetic legs. Then I realized it was really bad.”
Greatest challenge: Learning to walk with prosthetics. “It’s a really complicated process that took a lot of effort and balance.”
Support: His family, including wife Tiffany, son Mason, 3, and two daughters born since the attack in Iraq: Brystal, 2, and Bailee, born in December 2005.
Accomplishments: With retired Staff Sgt. Ryan Kelly, who lost his lower right leg in Iraq, and friend Chris Carney, he bicycled 4,200 miles from coast to coast last summer. Their Soldier Ride promoted the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), which aids veterans badly hurt in Afghanistan and Iraq. Staff Sgt. Calhoun also loves snow and waterskiing. He works for WWP to arrange adaptive sports for wounded servicemen and women.
Philosophy: “I had a family and too much to live for, and I wasn’t about to just sit on my butt and live the rest of my life as if I was 80 years old. There’s a whole bunch of stuff I can’t do but there’s a whole bunch of other things I can do, so I just jumped back into life as if nothing had happened.”
Shelley Cushing, 32
Lab technician, molecular biology lab
Beverly, Mass.
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Initial reaction: “I now realize it was naïve, but I thought strokes only happened to old people. When I was told at age 22, just starting out in life, that I’d never walk again, I was completely devastated.”
Greatest challenge: Channeling all her energy to try to move her lifeless left leg.
Support: Her family, including her parents and two sisters.
Accomplishments: She walked unaided through her Clarkson University graduation one year later than originally intended. She now works in the protein sequencing and mass spectrometry lab of a renowned molecular biology lab. Again proving doctors wrong, she regained enough range of sight with visual exercises to get back her driver’s license and buy a new car. She quilts and designs jewelry.
Philosophy: “There were many times I could have given up because of the doctors’ dreary predictions, but we each know our own bodies and limits better than anyone. So don’t limit yourself. We’re all still learning and discovering, most of all when we are striving to overcome the impossible!”
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Vice president and financial adviser,
Merrill Lynch Madison, Wisc.
Health issue: Type 1 (insulindependent) diabetes since 13.
Initial reaction: “I was told I’d have to live a sedentary life and couldn’t do things other young people do, so I sort of believed them.”
Greatest challenge: “Coming to grips with the fact that managing diabetes is a 24/7 issue. Sometimes you want a break, but you constantly have to check your blood sugar levels and make good eating and exercise choices.”
Support: His family, including his parents and wife.
Accomplishments: Founder and president of the Diabetes and Wellness Foundation, which has raised millions to help diabetics lead healthy, active lives. Founder of www.diabetesandsports.com, an online forum. National head coach of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International “Ride to Cure Diabetes” program. Runs Diabetes Adventure Tours for active people with diabetes. He climbed the tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas and was the ninth diabetic ever to complete an Ironman Triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. He completed his third Ironman last September.
Philosophy: Learning that you have a chronic disease “is a wake-up call. Some people don’t respond to such a diagnosis in a positive way, but you have a choice of becoming extremely aware of your mortality and embracing life and what it has to offer as a gift.”
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