GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Mental Health Month is coming to a close and the Hope Network is ending it on a great note, with the first ‘1 in 5 Marathon Relay’ at Millennium Park in Grand Rapids Saturday morning.
Nearly 500 runners came out to participate to raise awareness and funds for mental health.
Among them was David Wenzel. Wenzel says he was diagnosed with an inoperable and terminal brain tumor back in 2009.
Doctors gave him four to seven years to live.
A while after this news, Wenzel says his wife divorced him, sending him into a deep state of depression.
“I didn’t really care to keep going, I didn’t care to move forward and I was done,” Wenzel said.
Things soon turned around when he connected with his new spouse, and now he says he’s very glad he pushed forward through it all.
Wenzel says the anniversary of his diagnosis is June 7, and this year will mark his seventh year, outliving the life expectancy given to him by doctors.
Wenzel credits events like the ‘Hope Network 1 in 5’ as well as his friends and family for keeping him going both on and off the course.
