 The Florida sky had grown dark, and Chris Nikic felt ready to quit. He had been pushing through the grueling race for more than 13 hours, even though he could not navigate the course or keep the time without help.
It suddenly became too much. In the hot, humid air, he struggled to breathe. His feet burned as they pounded the pavement, his legs felt like concrete, and it seemed as if the muscles in his back had been put through a shredder. Nikic, a 21-year-old who lives with his parents in an Orlando suburb, had started the day with determination. If he could overcome the challenge of this race — a 2.4-mile open-water swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run — and do it under 17 hours, he would be the first competitor with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman triathlon. Such a feat would not just put him in the record books. It would also prove to himself and those around him that he could, in fact, do big things. And if he could do big things, then maybe one day he would be able to fulfill his ultimate dream: to live independently and have a wife and a family of his own. Would he make it? The finish line was 16 miles away, but he was breaking down. It was then that Nikic summoned a well of patient, hopeful perseverance — along with the energizing power of the simple vision he had set for his life. One step forward, two steps. One step. Two steps. Three. … To understand the long odds Nikic faced during that race, held in Panama City Beach, Fla., on a recent Saturday, you have to go back to his childhood. At 5 months old, he endured open-heart surgery. He was so weak and had such poor balance that he did not walk on his own until he was 4. To keep him from choking, his family fed him baby food until he was 6. When he learned to run, it took months for him to discover how to swing his arms at his side instead of holding them straight above his head. It took years for him to learn how to tie his shoes. His parents — Nik, a corporate performance trainer, and Patty, a stay-at-home mother — struggled to get their son proper care and attention. They moved him to seven different elementary schools, searching for the right fit. At every turn, experts spoke of Nikic in terms of limits instead of possibilities. “I always felt isolated, left out, excluded,” he told me during a video call this week, as he described the emotions that he felt growing up. He found solace in sports. By his early teens, he was running sprints, swimming and playing basketball in the Special Olympics. When he was about 15, his parents took him to a parking lot near their home and taught him to ride a bike. It took six months for him to go 100 feet, but once he got the hang of it there was no turning back. After undergoing a series of ear surgeries that sapped his strength and left him homebound, he grew determined to do more than he ever had before. Last October, with the help of a local endurance training group and Dan Grieb, a volunteer coach, he set his sights on the Ironman. It was the ultimate test. Conquer it, and he felt he could do anything. Nikic and Grieb began meeting in the predawn hours for 20-mile runs and 100-mile bike rides. Focused on making small improvements each day, Grieb helped him learn how to shift gears and balance. How to ride with the wind. How to relax while swimming in the ocean, even around jellyfish. Something was changing. He added muscle to his stocky, 5-foot-10 frame, but it was more than that. Everyone around him noticed that as he grew fitter he seemed mentally sharper, more attentive and confident. The race neared. “Based on all of his training I was certain he would finish” in under 17 hours, Nik Nikic said. “Unless something went wrong. Something can always go wrong.” A stiff wind swept across the Gulf of Mexico in the early morning on race day. Grieb was there in the water as a guide, tethered to his charge by a black bungee cord meant to offer extra safety. They emerged from the choppy sea in just under two hours. Grieb then helped Nikic onto his 10-speed bike, fixed his feet onto the pedals, and they began the long ride. There would be trouble ahead. Because Nikic could not balance well enough to drink water while riding, he had to stop and climb off his bike to hydrate. When he did that on the 22nd mile, he had not noticed that he was standing atop a large mound of red ants, which swarmed his ankles and bit at his flesh, causing his legs to swell. He managed to get going again, only to crash his bike a few miles later while speeding down a hill. Again, he kept on. Then came the marathon segment. It began well enough. Looping through the streets of Panama City Beach in the nighttime darkness, tethered to Grieb so he would keep from falling and stay on course, he passed a clutch of family and friends who cheered in support. But at Mile 10, everything changed. He slowed so much that it seemed he was barely moving at all. He began complaining about the pain. There was anguish in his eyes. “He looked like a zombie,” said his sister, Jacky. “Like he was just absolutely done.” His supporters huddled around him, doling out hugs, hoping to lift his spirits. Nik Nikic clutched his son, drew him close and whispered in his ear: “Are you going to let your pain win, or let your dreams win?” Chris Nikic knew this wasn’t only about finishing an Ironman, but about showing himself what he could achieve in the future. His own home. Independence. A wife as kind and beautiful as his mother. “My dreams,” he told his father, “are going to win.” He began to jog again. One step forward. Two. Three. One step. Two. Three. He found his rhythm. Nothing could stop him. He crossed the finish line with arms held high in celebration, and a little time to spare — 16 hours 46 minutes 9 seconds. “I learned that there are no limits,” he said, when we spoke days later. “Do not put a lid on me.” Take a bow, Chris Nikic, for holding tight to your dreams, for your patience and hopeful perseverance and guts. We could use a little more of that in this world. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/sports/ironman-triathlon-down-syndrome.html HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around.  In 2013, the Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page reminded people of his selfless act of courage, writing beneath a picture of Buscemi.
"Do you recognise this man? Do you know his name? Lots of people know he's an actor, and that his name is Steve Buscemi. What very few people realise is that he was once one of New York's Bravest. "In 1976 Steve Buscemi took the FDNY civil service test when he was just 18 years old. In 1980 Steve Buscemi became a New York City Firefighters. For four years, Buscemi served on one of FDNY's busiest, Engine Co. 55 in Manhattan's Little Italy. He later left the fire service to become a successful actor, writer and director. "After 9/11/2001... Brother Buscemi returned to FDNY Engine 55. "On September 12, 2001 and for several days following Brother Steve worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters digging and sifting through the rubble from the World Trade Center looking for survivors. "Very few photographs and no interviews exist because he declined them. He wasn't there for the publicity." Buscemi also been an advocate for firefighters' welfare, telling CBS News: "Firefighters are great at helping others, they're great at helping each other. But they're not always—they don't always know that they, themselves, are in need. "Their first reaction would be: ‘Oh, the next guy has it worse, you know?'" During the 11 September attacks 343 firefighters gave their lives protecting and rescuing others. Buscemi still serves on the Board of Advisors for Friends of Firefighters, an organisation dedicated to New York firefighters and their relatives. www.facebook.com/FireBrotherhood/photos/do-you-recognize-this-man-do-you-know-his-namelots-of-people-know-hes-an-actor-a/624804580886536/
HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around. ENJOY FEEL GOOD, INSPIRING STORIES AND VIDEOS ? Our new page here is just what you need, with just good news, feel good stories unrelated to COVID.  For the thousands of Canadians at risk of blindness, eight-year-old Sam is a beacon of hope.
He is the first Canadian to be treated with gene replacement therapy for a rare form of blindness which had left Sam unable to see sky on a cloudy day, and unable to make out shapes in the dark. “Sometimes you have to walk in the night and I couldn’t see things and you bump into things,” Sam told CTV News. He had to have lights on always, and had trouble seeing his shoes or objects on the floor. And the condition was progressive, meaning things would get worse as he grew older -- a daunting prospect when there was no treatment available. But now he can see cloudy skies, shoes and more. The best part of his improved vision, says Sam, are the stars at night. “I never saw stars before,” he said. “And I also never saw airplanes flying at night.” He was diagnosed after birth with a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, a form of genetic retinal degeneration resulting from mutations in the RPE65 gene. “You lose perception of light,” Dr. Elise Heon, of Sick Kids Hospital, explained to CTV News. “You end up in darkness and [it’s] slowly progressive, it's relentless, your visual field shrinks and shrinks and shrinks and shrinks.” Back in 2019, Sam and his family travelled to the U.S to get the new gene therapy because it wasn’t available in Canada yet. His mother, Sarah Banon, noticed changes quickly. “About a week later, I noticed he could get dressed by [himself],” she said. “He could get his shoes on by himself, independently.” His improvements have continued in the year since he first received the gene therapy. “He is so much more confident,” his mother told CTV News. “Like getting dressed by himself, matching clothes, doesn’t have to have things enlarged. Being able to [see], even when it’s dark outside, no lights on and it is a cloudy day. He would have to, at school, keep the lights on. “Now he is able to function as a normal child.” With the approval of this gene therapy in Canada, doctors are hoping to be able to use it on more patients who qualify -- and the earlier the better. Dr. Peter Kertes, a vitreo-retinal surgeon and Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, told CTV News that the approval of the therapy is “fantastic.” “This is a huge breakthrough,” he said. “Most of the advances that we have in medicine are incremental. Every once in a while, once in a generation, something revolutionary like this comes along that really changes the course of therapy.” “This is the tip of the iceberg. I think this is a vector that will prove to be very effective and holds great promise,” he said. “I think many people who are living with blindness or facing blindness, have much to look forward to. I think we're on the cusp of a revolution in this group of diseases.” https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/health/i-never-saw-stars-before-gene-therapy-brings-back-8-year-old-canadian-boy-s-sight-1.5145830 HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around. |
AuthorJust someone trying to highlight the positive news amongst a sea of negativity. Archives
November 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed