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Never give up hope: one neurological patient's marathon achievement
17 November 2009
For Stuart Lee, competing in a race, any race, was always going to be a challenge. Born with Hydrocephalus, Stuart had 17 brain operations in the first 18 years of his life and has a cyst the size of a tennis ball in his brain.But since 1989, Stuart's ambition has been to run in the New York Marathon, which he watched at the age of 12 from a hospital bed. Recently Stuart fulfilled this childhood dream, completing the marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes.
"I ran my first marathon for the Brain and Spine Foundation in 2007 in London, then again in 2008. But New York was always the dream, and on November 1st it came true," says Stuart, who had to give up running in his teens due to the massive headaches it caused.
"As I broke into tears of joy in Central Park, I remembered that hospital bed and the feeling of stepping out of the bed and not being able to stand up. That was the lowest point of my life. At 2pm on 1st November 2009 I can honestly say I was on top of the world."
You can Stuart's story in his own words, here:
