Not only does he run to fight hunger, but Richard Lima will now be running 100 miles in 24 hours to support the fight against cancer.
“I felt like using my running to start doing this,” said Lima, a Mooresville distance runner who prefers to raise money for good causes while running. “I want to do it and I love it, and give back in a way that benefits others.”
The benefit run, called Miles4Hope, will start on Friday, Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. at Directions USA in Greensboro and end around noon on Oct. 29 at the Lowe’s YMCA in Mooresville.
Lima was profiled in the Tribune in August for running on the behalf of the Mooresville Soup Kitchen. His motivation this time around spurs from Mooresville resident Nilsa Maldonado.
Last September Maldonado was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that had metastasized to her liver and lungs. Maldonado was first diagnosed with gastro-intestinal problems in early March of last year.
“The doctors just thought it was a digestion problem at first, but then I could feel a ball in my stomach,” said Maldonado. “When my doctor felt it he immediately sent me in for further testing.”
Though doctors do not know where the cancer originated in her body, Maldonado said the cancer is very rare cancer and only 2 percent of cancer patients suffer from it.
To this day, Maldonado’s doctors still can’t pinpoint the unknown primary cause of her cancer.
However doctors are treating her as if bile duct cancer is the primary and stomach cancer as the secondary. Maldonado has been receiving chemotherapy for a year and has been on three different treatments of chemo to fight off the cancer.
Since her last CT scan the tumor in her stomach has kept growing and new tumors have appeared. She recently started the third chemo treatment two weeks ago and will go every three weeks for four cycles of treatment.
Though there is no exact cure Maldonado said she will go through as many treatments as her body can take and doctors said her average life span is 18 months to two years. It has already been a year for her.
Maldonado has two young children with her husband Brent – Francesco, 10, and Paolo, 8. She was a Spanish teacher at Lake Norman High and an athlete previous to her diagnosis.
After meeting Maldonado through mutual friend Lorrie Cassanos, Lima approached one of the main sponsors during his endeavors in the Running4Hunger campaign telling her that he wanted to do something else.
“He just spoke with so much emotion about this woman that he just met and wanting to do something for her,” said Starr Kiser, of Slick Events in Mooresville.
“When I met Nilsa she had a gentle and king spirit and wanted nothing for herself or family,” said Lima. “So I asked her where she would like the money to be donated to and she said Levine’s Hospital.”
“He’s pretty amazing just another example of generosity because he didn’t know me at all and wanted to help,” said Maldonado. “He was asking where I’d like to the money to go and people always approach me to help me, but I wanted to give back.” “Children are always so special and kids haven’t even really started their lives I’ve had my time just wanted to help families and kids going through terminal cancer and any kind of illness because it can be very expensive,” she added. “Treatment like this go up to the three digits in a year and there are a lot of people out there that need help and in more need.”
All sponsorship funds will go to The Sandbox -- a Charlotte nonprofit that works with Levine to help families. The Sandbox will then donate all funds directly to children & families of The Levine Children's Hospital for the holidays, per Nilsa's request.
Lima said he has not set a monetary goal for his running. “It’s just an avenue to get fund directly to families and all the money will be used to purchase Christmas gifts for kids and families,” said Brian Dulin, a co-founder of the Sandbox.
Dulin said that Levine’s social workers compile a list of gifts children have asked for at the hospital. “We plan to fulfill the entire list of 25-30 families during our big Christmas party,” he said.
In what would normally take six months of planning and getting sponsors for an event like this, Kiser said she has to pack it all into 30 days to be ready by the end of the month for Lima’s run.
Kiser said they would like to get a pace car to follow along behind Lima during his trek else she and her husband will be following behind.
“We’ll take video of the whole process in a documentary format and my husband will be taking pictures,” said Kiser.
Lima is still trying to narrow down an exact route from Greensboro to Mooresville. “Even by taking I-40 to 77 is roughly 82 miles, so I’ll have to take back roads and streets to make the run an even 100 miles,” he said.
Lima said he was inspired by different runners doing similar benefit runs for long distances.
“I’ve conditioned my body to run and I’m ready to run, but the mental part of it will be the toughest part and you can’t train for that,” said Lima. “I’ll be sleep deprived and your mind plays tricks on you. I’ll be fighting not so much my body but my mind and that will be my biggest hurdle as I’m constantly moving forward but it’s nothing to what Nilsa and other people have to deal with everyday.”
He does plans to stop and walk which he says he’ll “have to,” but even his slowest walking mile can be done in 12 minutes. Lima also plans on wearing all pink in support of breast cancer awareness month.
Lima said that for certain sections of the run he wouldn’t mind having someone else running with him, but hasn’t exactly thought about anybody running with him the whole way from Greensboro to Mooresville but will pick up runners when he gets into Mooresville.
Maldonado said she wants to try and be in Greensboro when Lima starts the run. And she definitely wants to be at Lowe’s YMCA when he finishes.
“He is amazing and I’m so grateful that he is taking his time and effort to training and make people aware of the cancer,” Maldonado said of Lima.
“It shows that there is hope and that there are people out there that are so giving and generous,” she said. “He has a big heart and he only knows the basics. I shouldn’t but shocked, but who does that.”
For more information about the run, to be get involved, call 704-281-7294. To donate directly to the SandBox, visit Whatsinyoursandbox.org and click on Donate.
