Inspired by her patients, bariatric surgeon takes on the Pan Mass Challenge
CONCORD - The Pan Mass Challenge is full of tough terrain, but it's a challenge that's much like the medical journey that one doctor watches her patients take all the time.
Dr. Laura Doyon is a bariatric surgeon at Emerson Health Center for Weight Loss. She is trading in her scrubs for cycling gear, each pedal stroke inspired by the people who live hills and valleys, like Celina Leger.
"I lost confidence. I lost, just, self-esteem," said Leger, whose battle with weight robbed her of one of her loves. "I still taught dance, but I stopped dancing."
She tried diets and boot camps and finally, she turned to Dr. Doyon to surgically reduce the size of her stomach.
"I don't want to sit in a wooden chair and have it break on me. I don't want to get on plane and have to ask for an extender," Leger said.
Three years later and Celina's dancing makes it look like it was easy. But the valleys didn't come because she was coasting.
"It is work every day. I have to make choices every day for myself," Celina said.
It's all motivation for Dr. Doyon's journey and there's something more. New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that weight loss surgery reduces the risk of developing cancer among obese patients by 30%.
"I'm helping to stop cancer both with the surgeries I do and the hopefully with the fundraising dollars that we generate," Doyon said.
Her finish line is up and down and 50 miles away, but Dr. Doyon has seen people cross it before and now she has plenty of fuel to get there.
"And just because it isn't easy doesn't mean that it's not right or that it's not going well," Doyon said.
