Twenty-six year old, Elias Pexti last weekend completed for a second consecutive year in the Tough Mudder course with his good friend, in honour of his mother Daphne who suffers from Scleroderma.
The Tough Mudder course is an endurance event in which participants attempt 18km obstacle courses that tests mental as well as physical strength. The obstacles play on common human fears, such as fire, water, electricity and heights. Some of the obstacles include army crawls through barbed wire and electric shocks, wall climbing and getting through trenches filled with mud and water, just to name a few.
Last year Elias along with his friends participated in the course and raised just over $1,300 that went towards the promotion, funding of research and increased awareness of the disease, which has has affected his mother.
Scleroderma is a chronic and disabling connective tissue disease, that can affect many areas of the body including the heart, lungs, kidneys and gastrointestinal system. There is no known cause and no cure. The direct cost of treatment for patients is more than $460 million annually.
Elias mother, Daphne has been battling this incurable disease for the last 9 years, and Elias thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try to give something back.
“I am very proud of my mother. When you are tired and sore, cold and tingly from the ice, just some experiences and things felt through the course, you realise that she feels this pain constantly, to a degree we can’t understand. So you have an appreciation for things we don’t have to think or worry about. I am proud of her day to day living life like nothing's wrong,” Elias says.
Daphne said that she never really showed her children how seriously sick she was as she didn’t want them to worry too much about her so that it wouldn’t affect their lives, keeping her pain and fatigue to herself. When Elias last year told her that he had registered for the Tougher Mudder course as he would like to raise awareness for scleroderma as so little is known about it, Daphne recalls the overwhelming emotions.
“I realised how much he cares and worries about me without saying too many words. We both started to cry, hugged each other and both said how scared we are. We actually sat down and I opened up and talked about the disease, explaining to him how I feel and what this disease has done to me and our family. In a way it has brought us closer with an even stronger bond. He has said that this way every year he feels that he is doing something to help fight this disease and try to find a cure for me.”
If you would like to donate, please visit: gofundme.com/toughmudderscleroderma
All proceeds will be going towards future research into Scleroderma and its cure.
