Inspiration

[Mossley]

Okay so the following article is not bodybuilding related but it nearly moved me to tears so I had to add it in.

It's from the 2005 Special K Triathlon Series (another of my favourite pastimes). For anyone that does come across a stumbling block in their training (and we all do from time to time) just think of this lady......

ARTICLE

There is always someone doing it tougher ...

This story is somewhat sobering. It is a story that if the specialists are correct won't have a fairytale ending. It is a story that needs to be told nonetheless. It is the story of courageous Cate Carden. She embodies the real New Zealand Woman.

The story begins for us in October last year when Cate got in touch with me to say that she is doing EVERY single Triathlon, All nine of them. She was also just recovering from brain surgery to remove a Malignant Secondary Brain Tumour. Cate is also recovering from breast cancer from 2002.

Triathlon was going to become her motivation to wellness. Initially, the training was hard as it takes a while for the body to get going after such traumatic surgery. But the focus was there, and as we all know the focus is everything.

Sure enough, at Hamilton, Cate is there, husband and kids in support. Next weekend Whangarei we meet again. Her fitness is improving and everything is starting to look positive. All over the country, she is like physical perpetual motion. We race - Cate's there.

Seven races into the series at Taupo, she starts to feel unwell after the triathlon. Cate thinks that maybe she pushed herself a bit harder and didn't take enough water in. A seizure later that week said it was a bit more serious than dehydration and is rushed off to the doctor.

The news wasn't good. The news was really really bad. The tumor had returned to the brain in a similar spot. On Sunday, she was in the beautiful resort venue of Kinloch - attacking the triathlon course and PB'ing (personal besting)!! Wednesday was brain surgery where her surgeon delivered the honest prognosis that survival from this tumor was low but they were going to give it everything they had.

Cate survived surgery and to the words of her surgeon, he was stunned. He didn't think she would make it. Both he and Cate put her survival down to the fitness she had acquired over the last five months training and completing seven triathlons. She absolutely believes that had she not chosen our special triathlons as her path to wellness, she wouldn't be here today.

Sadly for Cate, this story may not have a happy ending. The doctors did what they could operating on this tumour. There can be no more operations. The prognosis is terminal.

We get an e-mail from Cate, wait for it, apologising for missing the last few triathlons. I think it fair enough to say she can enter and do any triathlon she wants to do whenever she wants.

She told me just before Rotorua how bitterly disappointed she was at missing the last race.

At this point, I thought it was time to make a display of force and unity for Cate from our special community.

At registration on the Saturday, the registration staff wrote the letters CC on nearly 2,000 race numbers. No one but Shane knew why.

The next day thousands of women raced with CC on their race numbers. CC stood for Cate Carden. She raced with everyone of you that day, every step of the way.

Cate displays the awesome display of toughness that I think characterises New Zealand women. Her determination to fight is absolute.

On behalf of 20,000 women throughout the country Cate, I would like to take this opportunity to say keep fighting. Get those shoes on, get on that treadmill and keep using exercise as a focus for wellness.

We've all got your back and it may only be something small but we are all going to hug those we love a little stronger tonight.

[Pseudonym]

Thanks for that post, Mossley. Inspiring indeed. :nod:

[Spitterkat]

why cant she get more surgeries?