Posted on 01/10/2020 5:43:31 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
When Dave Cassidy was asked to help a group of women train for the 2010 Walt Disney World Half Marathon, he readily accepted.
Cassidy worked in the sports rehabilitation department at what was then Florida Hospital, but he likely never had done something like this before. Neither had the women, nearly 20 in all, competitive to their core but with little experience running, much less that far.
"He really became the center of why we were there,'' said Kari Conley, one of the runners. "I don’t know if we could have achieved it without him.''
Cassidy helped 16 of the women complete the 13.1-mile course a decade ago. On Saturday, seven of them will reunite to run the Disney World Half Marathon again.
Just like then, they wouldn’t be there without Cassidy, who killed himself in April. Along with Cassidy’s widow, Sindy, and one of his two daughters, Katie, the women are running on what would have been his 59th birthday to raise awareness for mental health care.
"I never would have imagined that it would have been Dave,'' said Sam O’Lenick, who helped organize the reunion. "He would never make anyone feel like anything was going on inside of him. He gave to everybody else, yet it’s painful to know that maybe he was hurting inside.''
The numbers regarding mental health and suicide are staggering.
According to the Virginia-based Mental Health America, nearly one in five Americans (or about 44 million people) deal with mental illness, and more than 10 million adults have seriously considered suicide. Mental-health statistics for youth are equally disturbing.
Cassidy hid his demons well.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
PING!
My sister is running it.
CC
My next door neighbor went over to Orlando to run too.
Waiting for pictures.
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