Which Do You Want First

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We all dread that question. But when it was put to Army veteran Ted Hawken in

November 2008, by his doctor Evan Ackerman, he made the choice without

hesitation.

He chose the good news option – which was that his was “the healthiest

prostate in captivity.” Then, when he received the bad news, his 24 years of

army training in stubbornness kicked in, and the previous 2 years he had spent

on his fitness at WIRAC took over.

Ted had bowel cancer. It was serious and it looked grim. He immediately

commenced radium and chemotherapy in preparation for the massive, 4-hour

operation which followed.

But, there was a difference in Ted’s outcomes from the very beginning, which

still has the medicos scratching their heads. Ted was to, thanks to WIRAC’s

Veterans’ Fitness Program. And during the chemo, he returned home every day

and walked, following Lance Armstrong’s cancer-treatment advice to ‘keep

going and double it every day’.

Then after his huge operation, during which he haemorrhaged and after which

he spent 14 days in intensive care fighting the pain and morphine horrors, Ted

walked daily until after only 5 weeks’ recuperating he resumed his supervised

WIRAC exercise program.

“I’m here today thanks to the wonderful care of my wife Carol, without whom I

could not have gone through all I have; the wonderful skill of all those doctors;

and the wonderful support of WIRAC, without whose Veterans’ program I would

not have been fit enough in the first place to face down the demon Big C.

“I hope my story will inspire other veterans to get down to WIRAC and get on

the treadmill,” says Ted, reinserting the earphones of his Ipod companion,

turning up the volume on Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and recommencing his

stolid walk down the WIRAC treadmill to good health.