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You won't believe what's happened to an 11-year-old Utah boy with cerebral palsy.
After going through some unusual therapies, he's now walking on his own, even running.
It's the first of three very remarkable stories of courage and survival.
It's not hard for most of us to take an evening walk in a park, but what Andrew Justvig did? In the words of his friends, it's nothing short of AWESOME.
That's why he's the first of our "Champions Times Three."
In St. George, Andrew Justvig is running a race. Pretty incredible, since at best this 11-year-old with cerebral palsy previously couldn't even take ten steps without a walker.
So what happened?
Let's travel about 6,000 miles from St. George to the city of Mielno, Poland.
Harry Justvig/ Andrew's Father: "Somebody was doing something a little differently, challenging the normal way of doing things."
And different it is! This Euromed Center treats patients like Andrew with very aggressive, unusual therapies. They're commonplace in this part of the world - but new to Americans.
Harry Justvig: "Kids that were told that they would never get out of a wheelchair would stand on their first trip and balance for the first time, for ten seconds. I mean, that's a lifetime achievement for a lot of people."
This was Andrew's visit in 1999. He's six years old, getting fitted with what is called an Adelisuit - a bizarre looking outfit designed from the Russian space experiments with cosmonauts.
It takes a crooked, disabled body and "rights" it, so to speak - holding everything in a correct position for long periods of exercise.
Harry Justvig: "Every improvement that you make stays with you. So when you make these leaps and bounds in the suit, in the Adeli suit, it stays with you."
After eight visits to Poland and followup therapies here at home, stay it has with Andrew. He's throwing baseballs, broadjumping, racing, and more.
This is Andrew's third track meet and each time he gets a little better. Even more remarkable, in the past several weeks, verbally he participated in his first debate competition."
Before, a speech therapist labeled Andrew unintelligble. But now, what do people think about his walking and talking? Ask Andrew!
Andrew Justvig: "If they could see me now, they would be shocked."
Ditto say friends Mike, Tessie, Jaycee and Chase.
Mike: "It's pretty amazing how he can overcome not walking to walking."
Tessie: "It's really cool."
Jaycee: "He's not afraid to do anything and I just think it's awesome."
Chase: "When I saw him he had to use his walker to walk, just to walk. Now he runs the track and everything."
Stacey Justvig/ Andrew's Mother: "This is like a dream for him. It just makes me really proud. He never gives up."
The finish line? Perhaps, for this race. But not for Andrew!
Andrew gets straight A's, and wants to become an "imagineer" designer for the Disney Corporation.
