Still pushing through
Jessica Minton completes the New York Marathon in a life filled with obstacles.
With a Floyd County flag at her side and runners from all around the world surrounding her, Jessica Minton faced her toughest challenge last Monday at the Queensboro Bridge.
It was early in her quest to complete the New York City Marathon, but Minton remembers the grates littered throughout the bridge. Every time she tried to push her wheelchair, it felt like she was carrying three flat tires.
But pushing through that moment in the race, and finishing the final 10 miles, is one of the many adversities Minton has endured.
Whether it’s losing a parent, a home or even her leg, Minton keeps on fighting no matter the challenge.
“To be active and to be out, I
guess it gives me a sort of freedom and feeling of making a difference,” Minton said. “And if not for me, just letting people know it doesn’t matter what you’re going through, it’s probably better on the other side.”
Minton finished the New York Marathon last week, the fourth marathon she has completed. It’s an activity she’s only started in the last few years, but striving to test herself has always been a goal of hers, even before a year that left her life forever changed.
The Lindale native had a normal childhood until the start of middle school in 1993 when a teacher noticed a limp in how she walked. It was Osteosarcoma, a cancer in her left tibia that would put her in the hospital for the next year.
She would spend a large portion of that time in a hospital in Atlanta, undergoing chemotherapy. Eventually, the doctors told Minton they would have to amputate her leg to continue with the treatment.
A week before the surgery was to occur, Minton’s father died of an aneurysm. The doctors gave her an extra week to mourn before they had to amputate her leg.
“By that time I was just like, ‘Take the leg, I don’t really care about the leg anymore,’” Minton said. “I had lost something way more important to me.”
Only a month later, the Palm Sunday Tornado outbreak came through Floyd County and the Lindale community. While Minton was in Atlanta at the time, the home her parents had built only a year before was in the path of destruction.
She finally finished her chemotherapy in October of 1994. But instead of wallowing in her situation, Minton stayed involved in athletics, pushing through any hardship that might get in her way.
“I think having cancer when I was 11, so young, and with everything that happened that year, all of that just made me into the person that I am now,” Minton said. “It just pushes me everyday to become a better person.”
Minton would go on to play on the University of Alabama wheelchair
basketball team, just before another speed bump came in her life.
In December of 2006, just months after having a child, she suffered a massive stroke and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Not only was Minton back in the hospital, but she now had a limit on how high her heart rate could go.
It took her a few years before finding another activity, but it came after seeing a news story on the Kyle Pease Foundation. The foundation creates awareness and raises funds to promote success for persons with disabilities by providing assistance through sports.
After getting in contact with Brent and Kyle Pease, Minton began racing in 5Ks with a runner behind her, typically Wade Wildon. And before long, she was already pushing herself for more than 3 miles.
“It is at the point where I want to do marathons. For me, there’s no longer a challenge when it comes to a 5K,” Minton said. “I think after you’ve done one marathon, you want to do another one.”
She completed the 2015 Marine Corps Marathon first and then did the Georgia Public Marathon and Savannah Marathon in 2016. This February she applied and was granted to race in New York.
When making the trip last week, she made sure to bring her Floyd County flag with her. Because, no matter what grates on the road she has to endure, she always knows her home is behind her.
“This is home for me,” Minton said. “Whether it’s the teacher who first made me go to the doctor or all the nurses and doctors doing their part for people like me, I just think this town is my home and they support me in what I do. And I want to support them too.”