My hero is my 17 year old daughter Courtney. She is a swimmer and is very dedicated to her sport. She rarely misses practice and meets. On a Friday in October Courtney came home sick from school with her stomach hurting. She had a swim meet on Saturday and even though she was hurting tried to swim. When she wasn't able to continue I became worried. Courtney is a tough kid and is very dedicated to swimming. I knew she had to be very sick not to swim. Her sickness became worse and after missing two weeks of school we finally found a doctor that would run some tests on her. She was scoped, scanned, x-rayed, blood tests, etc... Finally her stomach settled down enough for her to return to school. At this point she was behind in her school work and with 3 AP classes the amount of make up work was a lot. In November, I received a call from her doctor that her blood work came back and it showed that she had Crohn's Disease. Not knowing anything about Crohn's I immediately did some internet research and learned that this was something she was going to have for the rest of her life and something that she was going to have to make major modifications in her nutrition. When we told Courtney that she had Crohn's she was shocked. She is a very athletic person that runs, bikes and swims with the very best athletes so she didn't quite understand how she could have this type of disease. After a couple days Courtney finally accepted her news and was ready to face it head on. It has been a learning experience for her and the whole family. She follows her doctors instructions daily and has established a very healthy "whole foods" diet. Because of Courtney's positive attitude she has been able to swim faster this swim season than ever before. She achieved one of her goals this year at the West Virginia High School state swim meet by breaking the girls 100 backstroke record that was set in 2001. The week after this meet she had a flare up and spent the weekend in the hospital. The following two weekends she was back at swim meets breaking more records and posting better times. Courtney is my hero because she lives her life to the fullest. She never gives up even when other people are telling her that she shouldn't push herself so hard. She is a great kid and a great role model for our younger swimmers on the swim team. She is my daughter and my hero.
Submitted by Anonymous
We've all had people in our lives who have made a positive impact on us. A parent or grandparent, a sibling who was there for us, or maybe even just a guy who shines shoes for a living? Whoever they are, tell us their story so they can inspire us even more.
Tell Us Your Story All Everyday Hero Stories