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Going the distance

Off the Bench with Adam Roberts

Throughout her training for her first triathlon, Jackie Beach has been occasionally gripped with exhaustion and pain. She’s been able to push through that discomfort because she recognizes her struggle is minuscule compared to that of her parents.

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She didn’t lose a rib to cancer, like her father, David. She hasn’t undergone six chemotherapy treatments to battle Stage Four Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, like her mother, Carla.

Overall, the former Abington resident’s strife en route to the Nation’s Triathlon on September 13 is puny compared to her parents’ clash with the disease she hopes to help extinguish as she races and raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

In May, Beach started working with Team in Training, an organization that paired her with other athletes in the Philadelphia area to train for various events while fundraising.

Beach has toppled her $3,300 goal, but continues accrue donations.

A portion of that money came from Abington area supporters who flooded Beach with well-wishes and checks.

The reasons for the donations were diverse. Some people remembered Carla and David from the time they lived in the area while others identified with the heart wrenching situation.

“It was what people said more than the money,” Beach admitted.

While Beach joined Team in Training as a way to show support for her family, who now live in California, she’s found plenty of inspiration along the way.

Between the images of her parents as they overcome cancer to the kind words from people, that in some cases, she never knew Beach is pushing on.

While Beach runs, swims and bikes towards a cure that could keep millions of children from experiencing what she’s going through, Brian McQuestion, Scranton, is taking on an equally challenging endeavor as a survivor.

McQuestion was recently categorized as a cancer survivor this summer and is taking advantage of his health.

In between working full time McQuestion rides his bike three times a week is preparation for the 65-mile Endure for a Cure event at Kirby Park, Wilkes-Barre, on August 16.

Five years ago, Ewing’s Sarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer attacked McQuestion’s foot and now he rides a bike further than most drive their car in a day.

The most awe-inspiring part of McQuestion’s participation in the ride isn’t just that he’s in it, but that he planned it.

This weekend’s ride will be the first of what he hopes will become an annual event. Piecing together the logistics for a fundraiser of this magnitude is no small undertaking, but McQuestion does it with a pile of other responsibilities and roadblocks.

McQuestion embraces his packed schedule because of the perspective he earned while going through treatment.

Athletes like Beach and McQuestion show that there is a lot more than distance between a competitor and the finish line.

No matter how the strength to carry on is mustered the payoff is its greatest when you can grasp the inspiration that propelled you.

Adam Roberts is a staff reporter for the Abington Journal and can be contacted at aroberts@theabingtonjournal.com.