Asia Ford is getting national attention because of a photo that went viral this weekend. With the help of LMPD Lt. Aubrey Gregory she crossed the finish line of a 10k race, something that she was struggling to do, held on Saturday in Louisville. According to WHAS11 Ford has fought with her weight for years, she was almost 500 pounds when she knew something had to change.
She got a major wake up call after her husband at the time lost a limb due to diabetes. After that her children grew worried, fearing each doctor’s appointment she had. “That is when I woke up and I couldn’t allow them to be on this earth without my help and the only way I would be able to help them is if I helped myself first,” she told WHAS11.
WGNTV tells us she lost over 200 pounds during the past two years.
So she was ready to conquer her next goal: finishing the Rodes City Run that was hosted this Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky.She started to have trouble breathing around the 4-mile mark but was determined not to give up and with the help of an officer, she crossed the finish line.
“I’m not going to let her quit, so I got out and she immediately grabbed my hand,” LMPD Lt. Aubrey Gregory explains.
“He asked me if I wanted to stop and I was like, ‘No,’ we have two more miles to go,” she recalled.
They talked along the way and before the two knew it, they only had a few steps to go.
“Your heart starts to fill up, you get those goose bumps and tingles all over your body,” Lt. Gregory said steadily, “When I watched her approach and I started to hear people scream and I let her go right there before the end and to see her raise her hands, there aren’t words to express the way I felt seeing her be successful.”
“It was really a special moment,” Ford added.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer posted a pair of photos of the moment on his Facebook page showing the raw emotion of the moment Ford crossed that barrier. He shared it with the message: “What a compassionate city looks like.”
The crowd celebrated her success and witnessed an officer who epitomizes community policing.
