Ben is a long-time fellow ‘crohnnie’ that has been down the same road as I and has dealt with Crohn’s for 21 years. He also knows what it’s like to train for events like a marathon. He has done the same thing as I with Team Challenge with CCFA to raise awareness and money to fight this awful disease and ran 6 half and 2 full marathons!

Ben is one of the lucky ones where he hasn’t had to experience surgery, but he is on medications that I have been on that I have had adverse affects with. Remicade is a drug that is administered via IV at the hospital. It takes several hours for it to drip into your system and will knock about half of your day out.

He has been quite fortunate that he has been in remission for 17 years now. That’s quite impressive considering that he has had Crohn’s for 21 years.

Some of the challenges he faces is fear of flare, knowing what foods to avoid with lactose intolerance and managing stress. Fear of a flare is real. When Crohn’s hits you, it can hit you hard and knock you on your butt.

Ben has 2 girls, 4 and 7. One of the things he does worry about is flaring and having my kids not know what is happening and trying to be strong for them. I have been there and done that. You don’t want your kids to know that you are sick and dealing with this. You want to be active with them as they are growing up, but it is hard, but we fight through it.

One of the things that he is kind of scared about is to pursue things after diagnosis, harder to take risks now. I get that 100%. There are things that I haven’t done in chasing dreams because of restrictions.

Ben is one of the reasons I run.

Want to help find a cure? Please help me get to my new goal of $2500 and support me and my ‘crohnnies’ help find a cure and run this marathon together.

You can donate here in support the CCFA.