Dear friends, family and amazing strangers!

WOW! So lew than 2 days left to the race and we have raised over £3,000!!! That is due you all of you and I give you my sincerest thanks!!!!

I just realized yesterday how many of you have donated and suddenly it hit me: You are all expecting a result! Well, as you all know, I always try my best and I promise to give it a good go. The weather is supposed to be muggy and sunny but I after spending 2 years in North Carolinas am not too bothered yet. The legs feel decent and I have been carbloading like a champion. I had two meals for lunch today, haha.

Breedge and her boyfriend Wouter are coming over to cheer and a lot of other friends have committed to being somewhere along the 26.2 miles. Now it is just about resting up and looking forward to the event.

I promise I will let you know how I get on...hopefully in under 3:15!!!

Love, Martin

Thank you for visiting my page, story and supporting my fundraising efforts! I have rearranged the page a wee bit. Now my latest update will be at the top, followed by a short verision of why I am running VLM supporting the Spinal Injuries Association (+ Thank Yous!) and the longer version I wrote on my 10th anniversary.

Thank you again. You all have been amazing!

25.03.09

Hey all. I hope everyone is well and looking forward to some better weather. We are moving the clock forward in London this weekend and I am looking forward to spending more time running outside than watching Sky News re-run the same 5 stories over and over again while I am running on the dreadmill at the gym.

I forgot to tell people but on my anniversary I spoke to Dr. Hackenberg, the infectious disease doctor who figured my illness out. He is well and still living and working in the Springs. It was great to talk to him and thank him for his help and I think he appreciated the call. He obviously couldn't believe it has been 10 years.

Training is going well, all things considered. I kind of hurt my foot playing Aussie Rules (playing is a loose term I use since I am a total novice) and work is very busy but I am managing and run a lot on the weekends. With 5 weeks out, the detox has begun and I am excited to get in really good shape to give myself the best chance at beating my goal.

Mt friend Craig has laid down the gauntlet and introduced conditional donations. He has one donation sum for running the marathon and another for a specific time. I encourage such challenges but cannot guarantee anything, especially since I am trying to beat my current personal best by over 7 minutes which is a lot of time in a marathon. Craig does know that money get me even more motivated though, haha.

Thanks a million for all of your support and please keep donating. We already have over £2,600 and £3,000 is definitely within reach!

Love,

Martin

 

Short version of WHY SIA

2010 is a special year for me. March 04, 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the day I became infected with a virus that caused inflammations in my brain and spinal cord ("Encephalomyelitis" for you MDs and RNs!) and led to 5 days in a coma and months as a paraplegic. As you are all aware, however, I am one of the lucky patients who suffered a Spinal Cord Injury and made a full recovery.

This event has shaped my life like no other. During the difficult times, my family, friends and I myself struggled to deal with the very real possibility of me never walking again. I cannot emphasize enough how tough this was on my family and how brave they were. They supported me every step of the way, letting me know that anything less than a full recovery was actually not a failure but just a new opportunity in my life. I remember my Dad going to a specialty store in Germany and coming back with a sports wheelchair and information on wheelchair basketball. He wanted to show me that no matter what happened, I could still do what I love to do the most, namely compete as an athlete. My mother stayed with me every day of our ordeal and I cannot imagine the effort she put into keeping me happy and motivated! I definitely tested her patience more than once.

As you all know, I did recover. I am running the Virgin London Marathon on April 25th, 2010 and want to use this opportunity to raise money for Spinal Injuries Association (SIA),  a charity I feel a deep connection with and that helps people who are less fortunate than I am. SIA provides support to the paralysed from the moment of onset and for the rest of his or her life. A user-run organisation, the charity engages in improving the patients' everyday lives while also providing advice and support to the families of the newly-paralysed. In addition, SIA aims to campaign for the best medical and social care for the injured. I especially feel that the social structures here in Europe are somewhat lacking in this regard and there is a lot of work to be done.

SIA has set a goal of £1,500 for me to raise and my own personal minimum goal is £2,000. I, however, also know you all and I know we can do better than that!!! I therefore ask you to please consider sponsoring me in my quest raise as much money as possibe for SIA and to run 26.2 miles under 3 hours and 15 minutes in London.

So...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DONATE!

Yours,

Martin

I would like to thank everyone who supported me in my recovery! The doctors (Dr. Hackenberg!!!)and nurses at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the team at my rehab hopsital in Nuembrecht Germany, the CC sport sciences team and my friends around the world who showed great support and compassion during a difficult time. My CC soccer teammates and Horst and Helen Richardson, my surrogate parents in Colorado. :) Stephan, who sent me hundreds of photos to cheer me up. My Granny and Nana, for being amazing and organising prayers, masses and thoughts for me throughout the world. My aunts, uncles and cousins who wrote to me in droves with words of encouragement. Julia, my girlfriend at the time, who was an absolute rock in my life back then and remains a dear and important friend today. My biggest thanks is to my immediate family who did EVERYTHING to help me recover. Mum, Dad, Breedge and Arlene...thank you for everything! You mean the world to me!

 

17.03.10 (LONGER VERSION / BACKGROUND ON WHAT HAPPENED 10 YEARS AGO)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Just a quick update (story is still below) => I ran the Silverstone Half-Marathon this past Sunday and braved the gusty winds alongside 10,000 other runners. My finishing time was just under 1:30, which is a personal best for me and a bit surprising given the weather and the difficulties training while holding down a consulting job. Let's just say that sleep is at a premium these days.

We are now 5 1/2 weeks out from the London Marathon and I just hope I can maintain a fairly high level of training and include some longer runs of 18-22 miles. It will be a challenge but hey, that's the whole point right?

I hope you all enjoy a nice pint of the black stuff tonight and don't go too mad!

Martin

 

Hey everyone - the short version is below...just scroll down! :-) Thanks for visiting!

04.03.10 - Hey folks,

Since this is the day, I feel a bit more detail is needed...

So today is my 10 year anniversary of when I fell into a coma and I have to admit, it has been much more emotional than I thought it would be. I remember all the small things, like taking 6 ibuprofin before my accounting exam because I had a horrible headache, trying to drink the headache away in the afternoon with Jake, Adam, Townie and Sam, not going out and trying to fall asleep early so I could make it to snowboarding the next morning to stumbling to the Student Health Center at CC.

Once I got there, an amazing nurse named Becky took care of me. I dont remember anything from that night but Becky came to my hospital ALL the time in the weeks after my admission and she was a great friend and an inspiration.

I awoke 2 days later briefly as they took a lumbar puncture (not comfortable) but remember all of 5 seconds of it. The next thing I remember was waking up 5 days later and seeing maybe 8 -10 of my friends and my parents. My parents, what an ordeal they had to endure: The hospital called them while they were in Berlin and told them I was deeply ill but that they could not tell them anything further over the phone. Can you imagine flying 24 hrs without knowing if your loved one is alive or dead? It makes me sad to this day.

Everyone was there but I was only awake for a minute or so. I had some pizza, puked it up and went back to sleep. I couldnt move my legs or my left arm. Gradually, I spent more time awake and saw more people, spoke to the physicians and my parents. Greg, the women's soccer coach, brought me a tv/vcr and I watch football and March Madness non-stop. Yes, I even watched the NIT! No one knew what was wrong. My Dad is in healthcare so we (they) had the Mayo  Clinic and Johns Hopkins on the case but after 3 weeks, the local infectious disease doctor, Dr. Hackenberg cracked it: I had Encephalomyelitis from the Epstein-Barr virus. I suppose I was one of the rarest of the rare cases (something in the magnitude of 7 in 10 million) that resulted in a central nervous system attack from EB and then again even more special in the way it panned out. My current Neurologist at Hopkins says he has only seen 10 cases of this in his life and I am the only one who is walking, running and playing sports. Again, I am amazingly lucky.

After 3 1/2 weeks of not knowing what would happen, I moved my toe. My Dad was there and he saw it. He immediately burst into tears. I had no clue what was going on; they had told me I had a 70% chance of walking again, which for me was a certainty. In reality, walking was a very slim chance. I will never forget my Dad's face nor my Mum's when she heard. It was over a year later until the nurses and doctors told me what my real chances had been.

I wont get into the grueling recovery (lots of puking and feeling useless) but I, and everyone who supported me, worked so hard! My sisters and Julia, my girlfriend at the time, were just AMAZING and I will never ever forget the support they gave me. Julia was there every single day, cheering me up, encouraging me and distracting me (pretending to make me help her study).

The moment I knew the worst was behind me was when my Dad arranged for us to go to a professional football game at Leverkusen. He had organized it weeks in advance when I could barely stand and we had special wheelchair tickets. I had been improving a lot in those weeks and was walking with crutches, albeit barely. We were getting close to the stadium and Dad told me to sit in the wheelchair. I, of course, did not want to but he told me it was the only way we would get the tickets in, haha. So, I sat impatiently in the wheelchair for 90 mins of that game and realized how lucky I really was. Leverkusen won, I think.

There are so many people out there who do not have that chance and I am running and fund-raising for them.

Thank you to everyone!!!! You know who you are. I love you. M

PLEASE KEEP DONATING!

 

02.03.10 - Hi Everyone! Thank you for your support! We are into the last 8 weeks before the race and it is time to buckle down and work hard to have a shot at my goal of 3:15. Similarly, we are into the final stretch of the fund-raising campaign so let's finish strong! £2,000 is the goal but OF COURSE the more we can raise, the more people we can help!!!!