Brothers run and roll to second straight marathon finish

Among the thousands of people who finished the Queen City Marathon on Sunday, David Hesse did it in a wheelchair with the help of his brother for the second straight year.

The 52-year-old man, who has cerebral palsy and has relied on a wheelchair his whole life, finished the final kilometre to the sound of loud cheers and hoots and hollers.

“I kept telling him, ‘OK, we’re almost done, we’re almost done.’ And he was getting really, really excited. That final cheer at the last bit with everybody is pretty amazing to be a part of,” Hesse’s brother Shawn said on The Greg Morgan Morning Show.

Shawn has been running the annual race for several years. But it wasn’t until he met a dad at the Boston Marathon a few years ago that he got the idea for his brother.

The man’s son also lives with cerebral palsy, and the dad uses a special three-wheel wheelchair to push his son in the race each year.

“I thought, ‘Geez, this would be great to push my brother in a wheelchair like this. I gotta look into this a little bit closer and see if I can get him out there with me,’ ” Shawn said.

He wound up getting such a wheelchair, after therapists at Chip & Dale Homes — where David lives in Regina — gave them the go-ahead for it.

Its three wheels are positioned like a tricycle except underneath the seat. One wheel is at the front, and the two rear wheels sit on an axle at the back.

The pair finished Sunday’s 42.2-kilometre race in about three hours.

Shawn said he’s grateful to be able to do something for his brother, especially because of his limited mobility.

“(I feel) pride for him,” Shawn said. “It’s special to have him out there and people cheering his name. It’s something that not everybody gets to hear or experience in their life.

“I feel blessed to be able to push him, and to have the ability to push him.”

Seeing how happy his brother is throughout the race is a mentally uplifting moment, Shawn said.

“He can’t put complete (sentences) together, but of course yes, he wants to do it again … he gets a kick out of it,” Shawn said.