A 17 year veteran of the West Virginia State Police is taking on a different challenge.
First Sergeant Ron Arthur says he’ll be doing his own kind of triathlon through West Virginia, later this year, for his youngest daughter Madi. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year when she was five
Arthur said he knew something was wrong. “(She was) Just real tired, didn’t hardly want to hold her head up. Her personality was different all of the sudden.”
Arthur and his wife, Tara, quickly took Madi to Charleston Area Medical Center’s Women and Children’s Hospital where tests showed her blood sugar numbers were soaring.
“She was in the ICU for the better part of a week and, thank God, she just kept getting stronger and stronger every day,” he said.
Madi is doing well with treatments that include daily finger pricks, shots and an insulin pump, but First Sgt. Arthur says there are many kids like her who need help.
That is why he is taking on what he’s calling the “Almost Heaven Epic Challenge.”
He’ll start out on September 26th by swimming five miles in Cheat Lake. He’ll then ride his bike for 191 miles from Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown to Hurricane in Putnam County. After that, he’ll run 41 miles from Hurricane to Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington.
“I’ll be crossing, pretty much, our whole state,” Arthur said.
All of the money he raises along the way will go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He’ll also be working to draw attention to Type 1 diabetes in West Virginia, including the lack of full time nurses in the state’s schools.
You can find more about the effort at www.milesformadi.com.