Prospective nurse runs for patient

Donnie Dempewolf, a care assistant at Children’s Mercy Hospital, said he always knew he wanted to help kids.

When Dempewolf met 9-year-old leukemia patient Bryndon Barrett, Dempewolf decided to put start running to help out this patient. He ran the Kansas City half marathon Saturday, Oct. 17 to raise funds for Bryndon.

Doctors diagnosed Bryndon with acute lymphocytic leukemia last year, and he met Dempewolf at Camp Quality, a camp for kids with cancer. Dempewolf volunteered at the camp.

Dempewolf decided to help Bryndon’s fundraising efforts. He said he could hardly comprehend what the child had to go through. “Normal stuff we take for granted can kill him,” Dempewolf said.

Even if Bryndon got a fever, his family would have to take him to the hospital to make sure he didn’t have an infection, Dempewolf said.

Dempewolf took up running because he thought it would show Bryndon that anything is possible, he said.

Dempewolf connected with Team In Training, a program ran by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society that helps people train for marathons.

When he started training, Dempewolf weighted 240 pounds at 5 feet 10 inches and couldn’t run a full mile. In the course of a few months, he gradually got faster and lost 40 pounds. He ran the Kansas City half marathon in two and a half hours and averaged about 10 or 11 minute miles.

And Dempewolf is not done yet.

Dempewolf will continue his training for the next few months and run the Walt Disney marathon, which is the full 26.2 miles, on Jan. 10, 2010 in Orlando, Fla.

“A marathon is the ultimate test of willpower,” Dempewolf said.

Dempewolf said he does not know what he will do after the Disney marathon.

“I think it’d be really cool to keep doing marathons until (Bryndon) is done with his treatment,” Dempewolf said.

Bryndon has three more years of chemotherapy scheduled.

Dempewolf went to Emporia State University for two years with plans to become a math teacher. He knew he wanted to help kids, and after volunteering at Newman Regional Hospital in Emporia, he decided to switch to nursing, he said.

He’s going to start the two-year nursing program at Kansas City Kansas Community College next semester and hopes to become a pediatric ER nurse.

Dempewolf has raised around $2,000 so far via his Team In Training blog and hopes to raise $5,000. All the money that he raises will go to patient advocacy and research for the cure.

“Bryndon’s a really cool kid, you know, just seeing what he has to go through, it’s a lot more than I think I’ve ever had to go through in my life,” Dempewolf said.

Dempewolf gets regular updates from Bryndon’s family. Dempewolf keeps his supporters updated on his training through his blog, which can be found at http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/wdw10/wontondon.

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