Facing Tough Odds, These Everyday Heroes Triumphed Over Major Health Challenges

Unbroken, the upcoming film based on the powerful true story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who survived during WWII on an exposed raft in shark-infested open waters for 47 days and was then taken prisoner, focuses on the incredible journey of one man’s resilience in the face of adversity. His story proves that you don’t need superpowers to be a true hero.

To celebrate the survival of the human spirit, readers shared with us their own tales of health triumphs in the #IAmUnbroken project. Some highlights:

I was born with cerebral palsy.... My whole life I have been in and out of wheelchairs, crutches, you name it, but I never let that stop me. I thought, "There is no way that I am going to be in a wheelchair my whole life," which is pretty much what everyone expected. Now...I'm 19, almost 20 years old, in school, a personal trainer, and an amateur boxer on my way to becoming a professional, because I did not let my cerebral palsy stop me. 

                                                                                                                             —Hunter B.

I am unbroken because my freshman year of high school I found out I had a major depression disorder…. I wasn’t my bubbly self anymore, and I stopped eating. My mom made the hardest decision of her life that summer—she decided to send me to a mental hospital. Five years later, I’m on the medication I needed, and I’m not ashamed of it. I’m majoring in communications, and tonight I registered for my junior year of classes. I made it. 

                                                                                                                                —Abby T.

On the weekend of my daughter's first birthday, I was diagnosed with a rare and highly aggressive cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a pediatric disease that affects very few adults in this world. After a yearlong pediatric clinical trial, I came home with my heart broken and body wrecked but completely determined to live, because my daughter needed her mother. I opened my mind to anything and everything that would help me live. I needed to find out how to find my heart, because finding your heart is the only way to survive.

—Wendy C.

Join us in celebrating these individuals, and submit your own #IAmUnbroken video. Select stories may be featured on the official website, www.iamunbroken.com. Unbroken is in theaters on Christmas Day.

Tell us your story here. We know you have one.  

Original article from TakePart