10/29/2015
Learn about the incredible men and women who are running in the for Team IBDkids! We are featuring the amazing athletes who are running 26.2 miles to raise awareness about pediatric inflammatory bowel disease ( ). Cheer your lungs out for these folks on November 1st!
Andy's Story:
Last year my 4 year old daughter, Skyla Rose, was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. It was very devastating news. But we have become such a stronger family and we are lucky to have found the Children's IBD Clinical Center at Mount Sinai Hospital.
By chance, my in-law’s neighbor is a gastroenterologist and when he found out our situation, he passionately announced, "Well, you have to go to see Dr. Keith Benkov at the Children's IBD Clinic!" And we are so happy and fortunate we did!
I enjoyed jogging off and on throughout my adult life, but I never ran any races until Dr. Keith Benkov mentioned to my wife during an office visit if I might consider running in the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon with Team IBDkids to raise funds and awareness for pediatric IBD.
This momentous and almost daunting challenge came at the right time. It has brought my family and friends closer together, and gave me a path to process this disease and the effects it has on my daughter in a very positive way.
Since running last year’s TCS New York City Marathon, I have been getting a lot of use out of my running shoes. I just completed the 2015 NYRR Five-Borough Series and I am looking forward to running in this year’s TCS New York City Marathon!
Today, Skyla is doing well and feeling better thanks to Mount Sinai. She’s a very active child and attends theatre class with her brother on the weekends. She also enjoys playing tennis, karate, and recently started playing soccer. Skyla also loves to sing. When she was sick last year, I was playing a song I wrote 15 years ago and she started singing along. Then her 9 year old brother joined in and we eventually recorded it. The song is called "Do Today" and one lyric from the song is, "Don't wait for another day, to do what you want to do, today. Do do do today!"
