Despite immense health challenges, Pittsburgh man keeps on moving - "I don't believe in giving up."
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - For some, when you get knocked down over and over again, it's hard to pick yourself back up - especially when it's because of your health.
A man from Shaler, who was knocked down more times than he can count, kept getting back up, even though some believed he never would.
Ronald Davis's laughter is infectious, and his positive attitude will leave you feeling positive.
"I just...I don't believe in giving up," said Ronald Davis.
When he was 19 and about to enter the Army, doctors found Ron had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
"I was flabbergasted, I was scared," he recalled.
He went through multiple rounds of chemotherapy, but even with that, doctors were not optimistic about his future.
"The doctor said I would be dead in ten years, but that's beside the point," Davis said.
That's because the point is that he ended up living and finding the love of his life and having a daughter.
All was well until the age of 37. The chemo that got rid of his cancer weakened his heart and it led to a widowmaker heart attack. It's something Ron said he never should've survived...but he did.
"They actually shut the lights off in the room I was told and pronounced me dead. But then I actually twitched, and they all came running back in and they saved my life," said Davis.
For the next 15 years, Ron wore a pacemaker then in 2021 he got a new heart. It was during that time he found another love.
A love of walking.
"Since my transplant two and a half years ago, I've walked over 5,800 miles," he said.
"If you add up all the miles he claimed, he's walked since transplant, I said you do understand you'd reach the moon and back, so you're missing a decimal point," said Dr. Manreet Kanwar, Transplant Program Medical Dir. at Allegheny General Hospital.
Dr. Manreet Kanwar, Ron's cardiologist, says he makes her smile often, calling him an amazing patient.
He now shares his story in schools and promotes the importance of organ donation and volunteers.
"Always on the move and never stopped since," said Rebecca Joy, Registered Nurse and Heart Transplant Coordinator.
Like walking in the Pittsburgh Half Marathon with his sister who is fighting Multiple Sclerosis.
Slowing down is not an option for Ron.
"This has given me the opportunity to play with my grandson, do things with my daughter, my family that I haven't been able to do in many years," said Davis.
Now, years are something he's grateful that he now has.
