Marathon Man: A True Life Rocky/Forrest Gump story

Book Description:
List Price: $17.95

Charles Robbins has something known as Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic, painful, deforming, inflammatory rheumatic disease. Despite this disease’s debilitating affects, and a severe case of Acid Reflux, Charles Robbins has not just survived, but thrived. Once told he would never walk again, today Charles has run in and finished 40 marathons.

Now the millions currently suffering from AS, the tens of millions suffering from other autoimmune deficiencies, and a score of those simply seeking inspiration to succeed can read all about Charles’s extremely inspirational and motivational story, Marathon Man: How I Trained Myself to Run After Being Told I’d Never Walk Again! (And Doing it All by Reaching Within).

Below is an excerpt taken from the website of Charles Robbins:

"Having Ankylosing Spondylitis is very tough, it is basically a crippling
disease along with having a hiatal hernia you would never believe I could do any
of this. Even the medical field can’t believe it, they call me a medical
miracle, with the best mental attitude, and self-determination they’ve ever seen
or heard of. They are the ones who nominated me for the National Community Hero
award that I was honored with. I have also been on the cover of several medical
magazines, you will see one here in my packet. I will continue to help others in
anyway I can. By showing people, “anyone can rebuild themselves.” Disabled or
not they can do more than they think they can. I didn’t let anything or anyone
stop me and never will.

Through it all I lived with everyday struggles in an everyday life, but
something just wasn’t right. For over two years I was suffering badly with
something that felt like it was killing me, but not knowing what it was and
going undiagnosed and hiding it as best I could. Then something totally
unexpected happened to me: I was struck and finally diagnosed with a painful,
degenerative rheumatic disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, or AS. Doctors
told me I would lose the ability to walk between what they were seeing and as
the chronic nature of the illness set in. They recommended that I get used to
the idea of a wheelchair. I didn’t like that idea. I had another one of my own.
Not once did I ever surrender to the possibility that this disease could beat
me.

The medical “worst case scenarios” were not allowed to enter my
consciousness. I set my mind to do battle with the Spondylitis, to fight every
literal step of the way to maintain control over my body. It was, in a very real
sense, “Me against the disease…”It was very painful and very frustrating, sad,
and hard, but I never gave up. The main purpose for me writing my book is the
same reason why I create and do my events and run my marathons: To help others
and to show others that if I can do it, they definitely can do it, too. To show
others that it is within them no matter how hard or even impossible it looks or
they think it is; they can do it and I want to show/inspire/motivate
them."