A double lung and kidney transplant recipient who also battled skin cancer and was placed in a coma because of Covid-19 complications completed the Chicago Marathon last weekend.
David Crosby finished his fourth marathon – his first since Covid-19 lockdowns – in 10½ hours, alongside his wife and recent kidney donor, Katie.
Crosby walked the gruelling route, flanked by friends Sean Maher, Andy O’Brien and Dave McNally who helped carry a 1½ stone portable oxygen concentrator backpack that David needed to help his lungs function.
The feat was more remarkable because he had to sideline his recent training when he fractured his knee and then had to undergo an operation to remove a mole after being hit with a skin cancer diagnosis.
RM Block
His story attracted American media attention when a documentary film crew followed him around at the marathon, which attracted more than 53,000 participants last Sunday.
“It was a bit of a shot in the dark all right,” said Crosby.
“Katie and I decided to try this marathon after she gave me one of her kidneys and I was training away [un]til I was hit with a fractured knee, a diagnosis of skin cancer and then I went and got Covid again. But the last few months I’ve been doing a lot of swimming to improve my lung capacity.
“I made the mistake of starting to jog and felt it in my lungs straight away. There were loads of times I felt like giving up but my mental strength and resilience that I’ve built up over the last 10 years, in all the dire situations, got me through and I’m so proud of myself and my willpower to keep going.”
Crosby who hails from Meath Hill in north Co Meath, but now lives with his wife and their three children in Kingscourt, Co Cavan, spent 66 days in hospital in 2021 after contracting Covid-19. He had to face saying a possible goodbye to his family as doctors placed him in a medically induced coma.
He came through his illness but Covid-19 caused irreparable damage to his kidneys and left him needing dialysis three times a week for acute renal failure.
Incredibly, his wife Katie, decided to get tested after noticing she had the same blood type as David and on finding she was compatible, she donated her kidney to her husband last year.
However, since this recovery, a check on a mole led to a skin cancer diagnosis and he underwent a successful operation to remove the disease.
“I don’t think I’ll be doing another marathon. I ran the New York, Berlin and London events but these were all before I got Covid and the kidney transplant. So Chicago was a big test. I learned from this that if you dig deep and trust in yourself, you can do anything.
“I couldn’t have done it without the support of Katie, my kids and my brilliant friends Sean, Andy and Dave who carried my oxygen. [They] carried the heavy tank and I had a tube from it into my nose.
“When I was doing inspirational talks, I was advised to stop using the word ‘stubborn’ and use other words like ‘driven’ instead. But the word that describes me getting through this race is, without question, pure stubborn.”
