I’ve neither had the gusto to run a marathon nor the misfortune of having to battle cancer, and the idea of doing both at once seems, for all intents and purposes, almost impossible.
But longtime Newcastle United midfielder Jonas Gutierrez recently pulled off that wondrous feat, completing a 26.2 mile race in his home country of Argentina despite being in the process of chemotherapy (not only that, but he recently revealed that his testicular cancer had spread).
My English professor at the University at Buffalo always warned us to avoid absolutes, but I genuinely believe Jonas has achieved the impossible. Seriously, when I read the headline “Jonas Gutierrez completes marathon in Buenos Aires despite battle with testicular cancer”, I thought the following:
“What’s the catch?”
[ VIDEO: Cisse salutes Jonas in goal celebrations ]
There isn’t one. From The Independent:The midfielder, who is still on the books of the North East club, completed the marathon on Sunday, raising money for cancer charity Fuca (Foundation for Research, Teaching and Cancer Prevention).
He took to Twitter to thank his followers for their encouragement during the race.
“Thank you very much to all the participants of the Buenos Aires Marathon 42k for the support and encouragement during the race,” he wrote.
Gutierrez was part of a team of runners raising awareness about the importance of detecting testicular cancer early. Wearing bright green, Gutierrez had a special shirt with invisible ink that slowly revealed an anti-cancer message as he ran the race.
Unreal. Let this serve not only as a message that our obstacles aren’t insurmountable, but that if Jonas can run a marathon while fighting cancer, the men in your lives can give themselves the simple testicular cancer exam.