KOSIK: And every week, Dr. Sanjay Gupta brings us incredible stories of recovery and survival from around the world. In today’s “Human Factor,” our chief medical correspondent reports on a 71-year-old who’s continued his dream of running marathons while fighting a dangerous form of cancer, one where patients are rarely cured.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2013/01/09/human-factor-don-wright.cnn
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don Wright’s career spanned engineering, being a company vice president, and the law. At age 62, he discovered a new passion — marathons. Nine year ago, days after running his first 26-mile race, he got some devastating news.
DON WRIGHT, MARATHON RUNNER/CANCER PATIENT: I had gone to the doctor a couple of times for pain in my back. It was multiple myeloma.
GUPTA: This is a cancer of the blood where the white blood cells invade the bone marrow causing pain, usually in the back or the ribs. Patients are rarely cured. But Wright refused to let that slow him down, even qualifying for the Boston marathon.
WRIGHT: We got this devastating diagnosis, and we just — my family and I, we just kept on going. You know, there wasn’t any reason to stop and be sorry, you know. We kept running marathons.
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WRIGHT: It feels wonderful, I’ll tell you. A philosophy of life that I have is live one day at a time and make it a masterpiece, and that was a masterpiece.
GUPTA: Wright wasn’t sure he could fulfill his dream because the median survival for his cancer is just five years. Prognosis does vary depending on age and stage of the disease. He’s had a number of treatments that have failed. But for the last four-and-a-half years, Wright’s taken an experimental drug, one pill at night, that’s worked. It’s kept the cancer at bay.
WRIGHT: It doesn’t cure the cancer, but it keeps it stable so it’s not hurting me. And I can still run. And I can still enjoy life, and I’m riding that for all it’s worth.
GUPTA: His advice to others facing what seemed like insurmountable odds, take charge of your own destiny and never give up hope.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.