One thing Ansley Cranford is familiar with is races. The niece of BCHS cross country and track head coach Shelly Cranford, she often vounteered her time to help her uncle with things like stats while at BCHS.
Cranford, in the athletic training program at UGA, will be helping at another race this weekend. She'll be putting her medical skills to use at the Walt Disney World Half Marathon and Marathon. The half marathon is Saturday, the full race is Sunday.
They'll take place inside the four Walt Disney World parks. Cranford will be there at 5 am along with other athletic training pros as well as medical professionals at one of several first aid tents stationed along the course.
The races raise money for leukemia reasearch. Cranford first learned about the race in 2000 because of her uncle running it to help Ricky Churchwell who was battling leukemia.
How did the athletic training program at UGA get involved? "Our UGA athletic training program was approached with the opportunity to work at this race back in September. I knew it was something I wanted to do because of the cause it supports," Cranford explained.
There's also a more personal reason why Cranford is looking forward to this weekend. Bleckley Primary teacher Linda Faulk lost her battle to Leukemia in 2008. Cranford got to know Faulk through Betty Cranford, Ansley's grandmother, who was a parapro in Faulk's class. Ansley would often stop by and visit after school
Speaking of Faulk, Cranford said "She always greeted me with the biggest smile and always had funny stories to share." Cranford also appreciated Faulk's selfless nature saying "She always put others above herself" and added "She touched so many people's lives in a special way and I know she will never be forgotten.
Cranford recalled that even while Faulk was battling the disease, she never "lost her love for life." Faulk touched cranford in such a special way that she signed up with the National Bone Marrow Registry. The registry is a database which helps leukemia patients find matches for a marriow transplant.
Cranford encourages everyone to register calling "a simple process that could save someone's life. She added "Ms. Faulk didn't make it long enough to get a transplant but there are other people out there that still need our help."
To learn more about the National Bone Marrow Registry, go to www.marrow.org
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2009 by BleckleyProgess.com
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