Hi Reader,

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This is my daughter Katya.

She turns 18 in one week, and she has had to learn to walk 5 times already.

Here are five things I learned from watching her push through her challenges from each time she learned to walk.

1. Let others push you!

Katya's younger sister is just 19 months younger than she is. Having Down syndrome, Katya takes a while to learn things. Once she saw her sister start walking, she followed quickly! She thought, if she can do that, so can I.

1. If you did it once, you can do it again.

At about 8 years old, Katya started developing bowed legs, and needed screws put into her knees to help straighten her out. She was more confused that she couldn't walk anymore and she was determined to do it again.

1. Resilience

A couple years later, Katya had the screws removed, which left nasty scars. She was older, and more opinionated.

She didn't complain about her knees hurting. She just kept going.

1. Be Patient

At 11, she started complaining of knee pain, then didn't sleep through the night for about 2.5 years.

She'd wake up every couple hours in pain.

We took her to a doctor in December 2017, and found out she had contracted Legg-Calve Perthes disease, which means your femoral head dies.

Hers died and then grew back, but in the shape of a heart, with half of it on the outside of her hip socket. Look at these X-rays.

In March 2019, she finally had surgery at Shriners Spokane to correct it. They had to do so much work. Wheelchair for six months (in middle school), hip brace to keep it all steady, and then a walker.

She was still in pain, but all the could do was wait. She had to have so much patience. the only way into our house was up stairs, so we had to carry her all over the house until she could use a walker.

1. Do the Work

Later, she had another surgery to remove the screws from her hip, and then it was time to really start working.

She had to build up strength to walk again. She attended physical therapy a lot, worked really hard and consistently did work that was very hard for her.

What's she like now?

Well, not only can she walk after putting in all that work, she can also run, and is part of the Track team at her high school, running the 100m dash. In fact, her video of her race on Instagram already has over 114K views, in less than a week!

She also wants to help give back to Shriners Spokane and is doing a Sing/Dance Run on her birthday to celebrate.

You can register here: https://51katya.com/products/51katya-run-walk-roll.

It's virtual, so anyone can participate from anywhere. Run, walk, roll, ride, anything you want. It's about celebrating movement and the blessing of having a leg-saving surgery!

To celebrate her birthday she is hoping to raise $5,100

All proceeds go to Shriners in Spokane. If you want to donate directly to Shriners without running (or anonymously), you can do so here.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you in advance for being part of this great event to support my daughter and her goal to give back to a hospital that helps kids.

Thanks,

Jethro

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