Russell Winwood is an athlete old Australian Recently become known as the champion of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease due to his extraordinary ability to run full marathons despite having only 30 percent of his lung capacity due to a severe and advanced condition, the extraordinary Australian athlete impressed social media pioneers for his athletic feat and heroism that does not reach even ordinary people, he pushes forward and inspires millions of people with his ambition, positive energy, determination and endless toughness.
• I had asthma when I was young
Winwood tells her story via the official website lungfoundation.com.au, (Lung Foundation Australia, an official organization that funds life-changing research and provides support services that give hope to people with lung disease or lung cancer) says, “I was diagnosed with asthma when I was young, but I was able to enjoy a childhood active While you play sports and do what most children do. In my late teens I started smoking socially ”. Wynwood didn’t know why he smoked, except that he knew he was bad for him, but he continued to smoke until he was thirty.
• Stroke at the age of thirty-six
According to the previous site, in early 2002, Winwood collapsed, after many years of not taking care of himself in the form of a stroke, and was 36. Nobody believed he had survived and from that moment Winwood knew it was time for a change his daily habits The wrong way and his routine way of life that led to suffering, and then he started eating healthier foods and completely refrained from smoking, which at the time of the stroke weighed 88 kilograms, an increase of 20 kilograms.
“At that point my son had just started pedaling and asked me to participate in the sport, and I found it was the best thing I had ever done,” says Winwood. .
Follow more: American woman over the age of 100 enters Guinness World Records for weightlifting
How did the history of the marathon begin?
Report on inspirational athlete Russell Winwood on Australian Channel Nine
According to odditycentral.com, a friend suggested Ali Winwood do a triathlon, and he was hesitant because he wasn’t a pro, but he finally agreed. Then, over the next eight years, Winwood ran various marathons and triathlons at different distances from sprinting to Half Ironman, as well as running a couple of high-speed marathons.
According to the previous site, in 2011 Winwood noticed that his training times were slower and the exercises were becoming more difficult. He was constantly short of breath and spirometry and pulmonary function tests confirmed that he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). With his lungs, between 22% and 30% of their expected capacity should work.
“I was told that I may need a lung transplant in five years,” says Winwood, noting that, surprisingly, the scan showed that the athlete The diligent Aussie didn’t have much damage to his lungs, except his airways became very narrow from years of chest infections, causing scar tissue to build up.
“I could have let this disease slowly choke my life,” says Winwood, noting that instead he decided to run marathons around the world with his oxygen tank behind his back, to raise money for charities (New York, Gold Coast, London, and more recently Boston.)
• There is no category of disability at the Olympics
Russell’s medals and championships – from his official Facebook page
Winwood points out that he is very different from other disabled athletes who may have lost a limb or been forced to live in a wheelchair. There is no category for his condition at the Paralympics, people with disabilities usually don’t run, ride or swim. Patients with the level of disease they suffer from are usually confined to their homes and immobile, do not leave their oxygen tank and many have difficulty carrying on, as their disability affects the most important and irreplaceable thing in life: the ability to to breathe.
• He dreams of running a marathon with his grandchildren
Eventually, Winwood found a way to live well with COPD by spending most of his days Share her experiences With patients and respirators. She has also written more than one hundred articles on his disease explaining the effect of ups and downs on patients and his strategies for living well with COPD.
And his dream is to run a marathon with one of his grandchildren when they grow up. My illness will never stop me!
Follow more: 90 year old paragliding for charity
