Meet Tim Sweeney: When he was two years old his parents found out he had cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder in which the body produces a thick mucous that clogs the lungs. But they didn't tell him because they wanted him to have a normal life. He actually didn't find out until he was 26, when his girlfriend "heard something in his chest" and made him go to the doctor. Last year his condition deteriorated so badly that he could barely walk without wearing an oxygen mask. But now, after a double lung transplant, CBS2 reports that he's running the NYC marathon!
Last November, Sweeney, 32, was at death's door waiting for an organ donor to die. "I was 120 pounds, I was so weak, eyes sunken in, losing hair," says Sweeney. His doctor recalls that Sweeney had lost 80 percent of his lung function, and if he had gotten an infection he would have died. Then, on November 10th, a 25-year-old died in an accident, and Sweeney got his lungs, making him one of just a hundred people a year who get double lung transplants in the U.S.
When he woke up in the hospital bed wondering how the transplant went, Dr. Joshua Sonnett told him, "I understand you’re a trainer. I just did the NYC marathon... Why don’t we do that?" And so they'll run it together on November 7th for Covenant House, and Sweeney's amazing story has inspired us to try and wake up to cheer them on.
