Boy Completes Marathon Distance During Chemotherapy
At 13, a boy with a brain tumor was originally just insisting on walking around the hospital, but inadvertently 'ran' a marathon distance.
write article/OrangeOrange
editor/Little Leaf
production/Macondo Running Research Institute
A marathon is never an easy task to complete, especially for Joey Belles.
Every day, Joey had to 'walk' around the nurse's station for several laps, not for anything else, just hoping he could recover quickly.
Joey is only 13 years old, from Texas, Alado, born and raised in a happy family, with boundless aspirations for the future.
During school, he liked to play sports, especially liked to participate in football training camps. But later, he had constant headaches, so he went to see a doctor, and the diagnosis was a thunderbolt – a brain tumor.
It's unfortunate that Joey encountered such a thing at a young age, but he was lucky because his attending physician encouraged him to keep exercising.
Starting in June 2019, Joey began chemotherapy. During chemotherapy, his attending physician and physical therapist encouraged Joey to get up every day, and if he could move even a little distance, he did.
Joey knew that this was good for his body, so he listened to the doctor's advice. No matter how difficult it was, he insisted on getting up and moving for a while.
Later, he heard that the hospital had a project called '1 Mile'.
This project was set up by the hospital to encourage patients to move, such as walking or riding.For example, if patients like Joey walked a distance of 1 mile – that is, walked around the nurse's station for 24 laps, they would receive a wristband as a reward. If they could walk 10 miles, they would receive a gift card as a reward.
'We realize that as a physical therapy team, the activity level of the patients is not enough. They are usually in the room or in bed.' Lydia Robey, MD, said of the '1 Mile' encouragement project.
'We need to change people's perceptions and let people know that exercise is also a drug.'So we encourage patients to move actively, such as walking. We provide tracking tables for patients and tell them to walk around the nurse's station for 24 laps.The first time, Joey only insisted on walking 2 laps, about 67 meters per lap, meaning his body was so weak that walking 120 meters was difficult, and he had to wear a wheeled medical pole, but he never gave up.
'According to Joey's chemotherapy process, it takes him 1.5 to 2 minutes to walk one lap.' Denise Belles, Joey's mother, said. 'If he feels good, he'll speed up in the last few laps, which will make him stronger and feel better. Because he did what he thought he couldn't do before.'
Gradually, with the accompaniment of medical staff or his mother, his walking distance became a little farther each time. From walking 5 laps, to 10 laps, 20 laps, even reaching 32 laps.
'When I walk, I feel great.' Joey said, 'I can say I feel really good, walking makes me feel so good. I feel like I'm returning to normal, not like I'm in chemotherapy.'
As the tracking table records increased, one day Joey and the nurse discovered that he had approached the distance of a marathon.
'Several nurses were chatting, when Joey passed them, one nurse noticed that he had already walked 25 miles (40 kilometers).' Haleigh Schreck, DPT, said. 'He is about to complete a marathon distance. So we decided to celebrate his milestone to encourage his effort and positive attitude.'
Previously, no patient had ever walked a distance of a marathon. In fact, Joey had never thought that he would walk so far, he just kept insisting, and he was surprised when the nurse told him.
Joey is in his fourth stage of chemotherapy, the last stage, he will complete a distance of 42.195 kilometers walking.
On the last day of his chemotherapy, when he walked the last lap, the doctors and nurses began to celebrate for him.
On February 20th, which was Joey's last day of chemotherapy, he started walking around the nurse's station, which was his 629th lap. The hospital's doctors, nurses, and other staff members knew that he was about to complete a milestone, so they all applauded and shouted his name – Joey, Joey, Joey.
To give Joey a more formal marathon finish line experience, the nurses made a sprint belt and other finishing supplies, as well as prepared a thermometer, banana, post-run energy food, 26.2-letter stickers and a medal with his name and date.
When Joey crossed the finish line, his mother gave him the medal.
'So many people are cheering for me.' Joey said, 'This is the best day of my life, I will always remember it.'
'I'm proud of my son.' Joey's mother said, 'His persistence shows that as long as you make up your mind, you can do what you want to do. We are a loving family, and after this thing, we will care about family more.'
After completing the 4-phase chemotherapy, Joey had great confidence in his ability to fully recover, and he also expressed that when he was healthy enough, he would start running.
After completing the 4 phases of chemotherapy, Joey had great confidence in his ability to fully recover, and he also expressed that when he was healthy enough, he would start running.
'We plan to run a real marathon, a true marathon. It may take a year to start.'
Joey said, 'We want to run the Cowtown Marathon or a large marathon like New York and Boston. My mother will run with me, and she ran once 10 years ago, so this time we will run together.'Mandela once said, 'Sports have an inspiring power.'
For Joey, even a simple daily walk encourages him to move forward.Here, come running, come checking in, come learning running techniques▼
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