Simply impressive!!
All of her life Isabella de la Houssaye has been extremely active. At 40, the Wall Street lawyer and mother of five did her first triathlon and caught the racing bug. She soon signed up for a 10K and did a half marathon the next day, and basically never stopped. In the past decade, she’s run over 70 marathons, competed in 10 Ironmans, and 20 ultramarathons, as well as climbed Mount Everest.
Eventually, Isabella realized she had completed marathons in 25 states and set a goal to finish one in each of the remaining 25 states. But she suddenly started having severe pain in her sacrum, which is the triangular bone right above the tailbone, and when she went to get it checked out, she was hit with a life-changing diagnosis: she had tumors in her lungs, brain, adrenal gland, lymph nodes, and pelvis. She was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer and wasn’t sure she’d ever walk or run again.
Thankfully Isabella was eligible for a form of chemo that directly targets the cancer and she says within 24 hours of starting treatment, she was feeling better. Over the next few weeks, she regained strength and she became optimistic she’d get to run again. Along with the chemo, she did alternative treatments like acupuncture and taking Chinese herbs.
Doctors warned her to only be as mobile as her pain let her and Isabella started walking around the block as soon as she felt ready. That turned into two blocks and before long, she was walking 26 miles a day. She’s since walked the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile pilgrimage in Spain and reached her goal of finishing 50 marathons in 50 states in October, all while battling stage IV lung cancer.
“I hope that when people read my story, they realize that there is no better form of healing than movement,” Isabella says. “And realize that this life is still worth living to the fullest - regardless of whether you have a couple months left or an entire lifetime.”
Source: Shape
A spooky kind of love!
A British woman who previously claimed she’s slept with 20 ghosts has now broken the news that she’s set to marry one of her phantom lovers. According to Amethyst Realm, the unnamed ghost proposed to her while they were on a romantic getaway celebrating nine months of “dating” in the Wookey Hole caves of England.
So how’d the engagement go down? “There was no going down on one knee – he doesn’t have knees,” she explains. “But for the first time, I heard him speak. I could actually hear his voice and it was beautiful, deep, sexy and real.”
Realm says that her family has been supportive of her unconventional engagement. So now she’s going to start planning a “Pagan” ceremony to tie the knot with her beloved poltergeist. “We haven’t discussed the details yet but I think it will be quite a big do,” she adds.
Source: The Sun