Tewksbury resident to participate in Heart Challenge 5K in honor of sister

Kimberly (left) & Lauren DiCredico

Kimberly (left) & Lauren DiCredico

My sister Lauren is smart, athletic, beautiful and incredibly kind. She’s always had amazing grades, spent her spare time playing sports, training for sports, reading about sports – basically anything that had to do with sports – she did. She was so in love with sports that she went to college to become a Sports Physiologist. At 20 years-old, Lauren was a member of her College Field Hockey and Softball teams and training as hard as she could.

Unfortunately, that summer she found out she had mono and that she probably had it for some time. After recovering from mono, she started to notice she was getting winded by just walking – she knew her body, and knew something wasn’t right. After a few appointments and some second opinions, Lauren was told by doctors, just weeks before her 21st birthday, that she had Cardiomyopathy.

When she called me to tell me, I had one response; ‘You’re going to make an amazing Sports Psychologist one day.’ I never thought for a second that this would take her down because in my eyes – and for my whole life – there was nothing Lauren couldn’t do.

After six months with no physical activity, and a lot of work, I can happily say that I was right – Lauren would beat this. She just received her Master’s in Sports Psychology at University of Denver and is off to Germany for an amazing job opportunity.

My sister Lauren is smart, athletic, beautiful, kind and she fixed her broken heart.

 

This post is brought to you by guest blogger, Kimberly DiCredico. Views and opinions do not represent the American Heart Association.

This year’s Heart Challenge will be held on Saturday, June 25th at Prowse Farm in Canton, MA. The event will kick-off at 8am with heats running through noon, followed by an on-site Summer Celebration which will include a short speaking program and live music! The course is designed to be completed by anyone that can run a 5K. To register or for more information visit www.heartchallenge.org or call 781.373.4517.