Roger Stretton is one of the members of our running community that we are grateful to have.  His daughter, Aimee, shares the story of his return to our events.
“My father has taken part in two 5K events that you have held in Fredericksburg. He has always been active, but these were his first 5K events he has ever participated in his life (young age of 74). He enjoyed the event so much he couldn’t wait to do his 3rd race with Bishop’s.
Unfortunately though, in May 2018, he was told he had to have open heart surgery. He was told at that time he had to stop all running and weight training. For someone that was active his whole life, this was not news you want to hear.
After a long 6 months, November 2018 my Roger had open heart surgery. He went through 2 valve replacements, and 1 valve repair. It was a 7 hour surgery. The surgery went well, but the Surgeon told us he could be in the ICU for a few days, and be prepared it could be a long recovery process.
The next day, we went to see him, expecting he was still going to be asleep in the ICU. To my shock he was not only awake, but he was being assisted to help him walking around. The team at the hospital were shocked on how well he was doing. I will never forget that as he was walking about, with all of his oxygen tanks and monitoring systems he said to me ‘in 6 months I will take part in another Bishops 5K event.’ “
In April 2019, Roger completed our Easter 5k in Fredericksburg.