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MURRAY — A father and daughter duo from Draper is getting ready for a big road race tomorrow in Murray, organized by Push to the Finish, a Utah foundation that helps disabled children feel the joy of crossing the finish line. That joy felt by dozens of local children each year.
Joe Reardon has been running daily in preparation for this race and when he gets ready he's not alone. His favorite running partner is 9-year-old daughter JulieLynn who was born with a rare brain malformation.
She had a condition called hemimegalencephaly which means half brain. That was causing 20 seizures an hour, so the only way to save her was to actually take out the entire right side of her brain.
–Anita Miller-Reardon, JulieLynn's mother
"She had a condition called hemimegalencephaly, which means half brain," said Anita Miller-Reardon, JulieLynn's mother. "That was causing 20 seizures an hour, so the only way to save her was to actually take out the entire right side of her brain."
Reardon says there was no other choice of treatment for the disorder. JulieLynn, their only child, had the surgery when she was only four months old.
"The first doctor said if she could recognize us that's the best we could expect her entire life," Miller-Reardon said.
JulieLynn has done so much more. Though she has no functional speech, and struggles with cerebral palsy, she communicates using sign language and occasional words. In fact, she recently tested out in math and reading at a third grade level.
"But word recognition she tests out about a seventh or eighth grade level, so that's pretty cool," Reardon said.
She loves nature, she loves being outside, she loves that feeling of just being like everybody else. It gives her a feeling like the other kids.
–Anita Miller-Reardon
What's really cool for JulieLynn is getting outside and running.
Push to the Finish recruits able-bodied runners in Utah to push special needs children through races and help them feel like everyone else.
"She loves nature, she loves being outside, she loves that feeling of just being like everybody else," Miller-Reardon said. "It gives her a feeling like the other kids."
And like other kids, JulieLynn has the medals to prove it. She also loves to go fast.
"If I'm not going fast enough, I definitely hear it," Reardon said.
Even though she may never run a step in her life, JulieLynn knows she'll always have her father to push her every step of the way.
For more information about Push to the Finish and how you can sponsor a child, please visit their http://www.pushtothefinish.org/.
