Light of Day Board Member Takes The Fight Against Parkinson's To The Streets

Ken Reichel at the San Francisco Marathon in July 2009.

In December 2008, Light of Day board member Ken Reichel felt the need to do more for LOD. Ken was 47 at the time and had just completed the New York Marathon, running for his office’s charity team and he jumped on an idea – doing fifty marathons by age fifty and raising $50,000 for LOD in the process. LOD and the battle against movement related afflictions is extremely important to Ken as he has seen the struggles of people around him, including his father, who had just passed away a few months earlier and who battled with Tourette’s since the 1970s. Ken had also seen the great strides brought by research in this field.

Ken had a four marathon head start but would still have to do forty-six more marathons in about thirty months. As of October 15, Ken has completed 14 marathons in 2009, for a total of 18, and expects to do eight more in 2009. More importantly, Ken has raised about $15,000 for LOD and has increased his goal to $60,000. The races have spanned massive events like San Francisco where there were over 5,000 finishers, Nashville and Disney World to much smaller races like Oil City (PA), Albany (GA) and Tupelo, Mississippi where 258 runners completed the 26.2 mile course.

We caught up with Ken, not an easy thing to do, and he told us, “It’s been a great experience to connect with friends, family and colleagues around the country and help raise money for a great cause at the same time. While 26.2 miles might seem like a massive undertaking, it’s not much compared to the challenges many people with Parkinson’s face – and overcome – every day. One of those people, Bob Benjamin, the soul and founder of the Light of Day Foundation inspires me with his courage, strength and grace.”

Ken’s latest accomplishment was to complete the Chicago Marathon on October 12 in a personal best time of 3:45. His quest continues in Washington, DC in the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25 followed a week later by the New York Marathon. Ken will wrap up the year with runs in Atlanta, Jacksonville and two other cities. We will keep you updated on Ken’s remarkable accomplishments as he runs to support the fight against Parkinson’s disease.

Ken also stated, “I encourage people to contribute to any of the groups that raise money to put a quick end to Parkinson’s.”

You can support Ken’s efforts and the fight against Parkinson’s by contributing to Light of Day with a click on the donation button on this web page.

Or by donating to one of the following organizations:

Team Parkinson
www.team-parkinson.org

Team Fox
www.teamfox.org

Parkinson’s Disease Foundation
www.pdf.org