Boonshoft School of Medicine student runs in ultramarathon, raises money for Swaziland mobile hospital organization

Teddy Bross running in ultramarathon race

Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine student Teddy Bross ran in an ultramarathon race to raise funds for The Luke Commission, a mobile hospital outreach organization based in Swaziland.

Teddy Bross, a first-year medical student at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, completed his final exams on June 5 and immediately left for Wisconsin to run in the Kettle Moraine 100, an ultramarathon race, that began at 6 a.m. the following day.

He finished the race with a personal best time of 22:17:20.03, four hours faster than a previous best, running the 100-mile course that follows the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine Forest through a pine-needle-covered trail, gentle prairie, marsh areas and a roller coaster of hills.

He finished at 4:17 a.m. on Sunday, June 7, without any sleep, stopping briefly at aid stations for water and food. His parents and his younger sister crewed for him and met him at most of the aid stations.

Combining his passions for running and medicine, he ran the race to help raise more than $1,200 for The Luke Commission, a mobile hospital outreach organization, based in Swaziland, a small sovereign state in southern Africa, neighbored by Mozambique to the east and South Africa to the north, west and south.

The Luke Commission was founded by 2002 Boonshoft School of Medicine graduate Harry VanderWal Jr., M.D., and his wife, Echo, in 2005 after visiting Swaziland, where they saw the devastation of HIV/AIDS throughout rural Swaziland. The organization has been hosting medical students and faculty for more than 10 years.

Bross, who is from Cincinnati, and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from The Ohio State University, will volunteer with The Luke Commission along with four other Boonshoft School of Medicine students, June 23 through July 16. They will assist physicians in the mobile clinics, triaging patients, attending to and scribing for the physicians, taking inventory of supplies and fitting patients with shoes.

“I have always enjoyed combining my passions, and this fundraiser allowed me to do just that with running and medicine,” said Bross, who began running on his high school cross country team as a senior and ran his first ultramarathon in 2012. “I saw this as an opportunity to do something for this organization, which has offered Wright State students an incredible experience in medicine and cultural immersion.”

Comments are closed.