How Bodybuilding helped David Prescott fight cancer.
In popular culture there seems to be a negative stigma surrounding bodybuilding. All they see are steroid freaks prone to roid rage and mental imbalances, muscled up meat heads without a thought in their skulls. This is the usual uneducated response from people who have no knowledge about the sport and its benefits on living a healthy lifestyle. If they did a little research then they would find that bodybuilding as a lifestyle can change lives for the better.
David Prescott, a Standish, Lancashire resident who was diagnosed with cancer four years back and suffering a severe heart attack, will tell you the benefits that bodybuilding has had on his life. The 50 year old Prescott has been bodybuilding ever since his youth and credits his bodybuilding lifestyle as the main factor in overcoming his cancer.
“For me, it has given me the fight, discipline, determination and the character to come out of that four year spell of major health issues wanting to be fit and healthy again.”
– David Prescott in an interview with the Daily Mail
Prescott underwent a surgery that would remove half his liver and ultimately made him lose 27 pounds. But not one to be easily defeated, Prescott used his knowledge and experience in bodybuilding to help him battle back and get into fighting form. The mental fortitude he’d built up through pushing weights for his entire life seemed to be the perfect well of strength for Prescott to pull from.
A successful surgery and 57 staples in his abdomen later, Prescott would eventually find himself back in the one place that gave him some measure of peace. The gym.
“The steps up to the gym were a challenge on their own. I picked up the weights and proceeded to curl them, my arms started to shake uncontrollably, I dropped the weight and struggled on. Nobody knows my body better than me and that’s the knowledge bodybuilding gave me. I just wanted my life back. This was the start of my recovery I now had something to build on. Day after day, week after week, I chipped away at it, getting fitter and stronger. I was in control again.”
– David Prescott in an interview with the Daily Mail
Prescott is the example that bodybuilding not only needs, but what it deserves. His story of battling and overcoming a horrible disease with the use of bodybuilding is the kind of press bodybuilding should receive. If the media would focus more on stories like Prescott’s it would go a long way to showcasing all the positives the sport has to offer.
How has bodybuilding changed your life? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Cover photo courtesy of Ross Parry Agency & the Daily Mail.
