Written by Holden Rethwill
As many of you have read in our previous post, on October 5th I will be embarking on a Three Peak Challenge alongside Coach Nick Hawkes. We plan to summit Mount San Jacinto, Mount Baldy, and Mount Gorgonio all within the same 24 hour period. It will be a test of not only our physical stamina but our mental fortitude as well.
No matter who you are or what you’re doing, movement for a full 24-hours is just downright difficult. It takes a strong purpose to be able to complete such seemingly daunting tasks. Without sound reasoning behind you (we’ll call it a bulletproof why), I can promise that the tough times will seem that much tougher.
From an outside perspective, you may see that the surface purpose of our journey and this challenge is to celebrate our ability to move coupled with our love for the outdoors. But, dig a little deeper into our lives and you’ll find that the true why for both of us lies in something much bigger than just us and our fitness…
If you read the introductory blog post on this challenge as well as watched our follow-up video on our training regimen, then you know that we are using this journey as an attempt to raise funds and donations for the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. What you may not fully understand though is our connection to this disease and the effects it has had on both of our lives.
In the following weeks Nick will be posting a video blog with his mother – who is currently suffering from this disease – so keep your eye out for that. I’ll allow him to go into a little more detail to tell her story. What I’ll be discussing with you today, is how it hit me and my family.
Some of you may know that my first name isn’t actually Holden, it’s Wesley. I’m the 4th Wesley H Rethwill (different middle names) in line in my family. My great-grandpa, grandpa, dad, and myself. It’s pretty cool when you think about it and something I take pride in. I’ve always had a close relationship with my dad and grandpa, and when you line up pictures of us at the same age, we’re just about identical.
My grandpa was someone I always looked up to, even though he lived in Minnesota and us in Washington. Every single birthday, Christmas, you name it, I got a handwritten card with his beautiful – left-handed, like me – writing. We spent summers out there going to Dairy Queen (even though he was a dentist – and yes, believe it or not, he had great handwriting for a dentist haha), the Mall of America, driving tractors, swimming in the lake, and so on.
I still remember like it was yesterday, a day back in high school where things started to change. Grandpa’s health started to decline, his body started having uncontrollable episodes of shaking, and he was struggling to do the everyday tasks that we all mindlessly take for granted. The cards still came for every occasion, but it was very evident that something was wrong. He no longer had that beautiful handwriting, it actually started to look like a doctor’s…
Fast forward through a couple of hospital trips and extensive testing, and we found out that my grandpa had developed Parkinson’s disease.
Our reaction I’m sure was similar to the countless other people who know so little about this disease…“What is this??”
Parkinson’s, as I aforementioned, is a disease that many people don’t fully understand. The cause is still unknown but is shown to be related to both genetic and environmental factors. What Parkinson’s is though, is a degenerative disorder that attacks your central nervous system, affecting your motor system (your body’s ability to control movement). Symptoms for people who suffer from this disease can range widely from tremors and shaking to difficulty thinking, and potentially dementia in advanced stages.
Now imagine your life and all the things we take for granted on a daily basis…Drinking a cup of water, writing down notes, eating with a fork, etc. Try doing it while uncontrollably shaking your hand.
That’s what I watched my grandpa go through.
He went from being that strong grandpa figure – a man who used his hands for the most steady and minute movements, every single day with his craft – to a man who struggled to just sign his name on a simple birthday card.
Unfortunately, for the older population, this disease progresses quickly. We watched as every day seemed to get worse and worse, and it was heartbreaking for my dad the day we had to move my grandpa out of the house his father had built with his bare hands and into a nursing home with 24-hour caretakers, all because my grandpa no longer could control his movement.
Unfortunately, the disease progressed through my grandpa extremely fast. Within a short period of time, the disease had taken my grandpa’s life. Watching the struggle my father went through being so far away from his dad during this, and ultimately losing him to the disease – that protective figure that we had always looked up to – really hit home for me.
What caused this? We don’t fully know. Was my grandpa the healthiest person on the planet? Definitely not. Could his diet have been better, could he have slept more hours, could he have consumed more water and less sugary drinks? Definitely. But at the same time, he was no different than so many other American’s today. He was an athlete his whole life, worked out on occasion, and was by no means overweight.
But were these environmental factors the cause for him contracting Parkinson’s? Was this the reason it progressed through him at such a high rate? All of these are the questions we’d love to get the answers to. The part about it being potentially linked genetically is the part that worries me most. The last thing I want to do is have to watch someone else that I love go down this same frustrating, and ultimately fatal, route.
All of these reasons are why Nick and I have chosen to use this challenge we are embarking on as an opportunity to raise funds for the Michael J Fox Foundation. It’s the reason I have no question in my mind if I’ll be able to complete the task, because I know that when I get tired, and my feet hurt, and my legs ache, that there are millions of people around the world who are affected by this disease and are unable to celebrate fitness in the same capacity that we are able to. I’ll be thinking of my grandpa and the struggle that he went through whenever I feel like I don’t want to keep going.
Whether or not this resonates with you is ok with me. But everyone out there has been affected by something at some point in some capacity. Whether it was Parkinson’s or not, I’d encourage you to find a foundation that speaks to your heart and donate to help. Even the smallest donations can go the longest way. If this post did speak to you, and you’d like to support our cause, click the link at the bottom of the article to learn how you can either help Nick and myself or donate to the Michael J Fox Foundation!