Why I’m Doing the #LetMeBeYourLungs Challenge: Martha Gulati
I will be running every day for Team PHenomenal Hope as part of their #LetMeBeYourLungs Challenge during the month of November.
November is pulmonary hypertension (PH) awareness month. This is a month where we as a community raise the noise and conversations about PH awareness, research, and education.
Team Phenomenal Hope focuses on all the areas 365 days of the year (this year 366!), but in November, their voice becomes LOUD as they engage with the community of clinicians, patients, caregivers, industry and general public to turn up the volume. A big focus for the everyday walkers, runners, and bikers is the #LetMeBeYourLungs Challenge. So I am taking the challenge!
Why?
Well, first, if it wasn’t for my connection to great PH researchers, I would have never met my husband! Yes, this is true, if you want to details, let me know. But all I can say is thank goodness for Dr. Stuart Rich, who brought to my office Dr. Mardi Gomberg, who introduced me to my darling husband, Gareth Gwyn, who has been toiling away in the PH world forever! Fate connected us through PH.
Second, my husband is so passionate about the PH community and especially the people living everyday with PH. So I want to be their lungs. 30 days is nothing compared to their daily challenges.
Third, I am a cardiologist, and I see PH, even if that isn’t my focus. My focus is women, and women are more likely to suffer from PH than men. Their symptoms are often ignored and there are great delays in them getting diagnosed. The incredible treatments being discovered are of no use if the patients can’t get them in time. So bringing awareness to PH is important for my medical community.
Now, I run every single day. My two crazy dogs in the photo below make me run without any days off. It makes them happy and it makes me happy. The joy of running is something hard to put into words but it is a daily gift for me, pushing my heart and lungs miles and miles, making me feel powerful, strong and healthy. My hope is people living with PH will one day experience the shortness of breath that is intentional, coming from the joy of exercise, not from walking a few steps or a few stairs. So every day in the month of November I plan to be their lungs. I will do the miles for them. And so will my two running partners. We will raise funds for people living with PH and Team PHenonomal Hope. Today I am their lungs so tomorrow they can use their own.
If you would like to donate to my team of four (this includes Gareth, who will not run, but walk on his own…). Please donate here.
