Mumbai: A Ratnagiri resident, who was left paralysed by a botched brain surgery four years ago, plans to participate in the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2019, which is going to be held on Sunday. Thirty-four-year-old Kavita Kadam is going to participate in the half-marathon (21 kilometres) event. This will be her second marathon outing, after she successfully completed the Pat Panhale marathon in her home town last year.
“Doctors had lost all hopes after she remained bedridden for four months in 2015. But she is a fighter. Three years ago, she started training and exercising with all her might, determined to overcome her paralysis,” says her husband Deepak Kadam.
“Last year, I took her to watch a marathon and she decided she wanted to participate in the Pat Panhale event. After running seven kilometres in three-and-a-half hours, she decided, next, she was going to run a half-marathon and she began training in earnest,” Deepak said.
Kavita says, her husband motivated her to run the 21km marathon. “I began training at 6am every morning, running eight kilometres in three to four hours. I participated in the Pat Panhale event, which I completed in over three hours,” she said. Deepak and Kavita set up a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Yashwant Navjivan & Sarvangin, last year, hoping to open a physiotherapy centre in the future. “We have decided to set up a centre which will provide patients access to physiotherapy and counselling. We want to help others, whose story is similar to that of Kavita.”
