Honoring a father and husband, that's what John Chapman's family will do at the Bix 7 this Saturday. John died at age 41 while running the Bix two years ago.
"Every 24 hours, 2200 people die of heart disease," John's mother, Rosemary Chapman, says, "That's a loved one every 39 seconds."
One of those loved ones was John Chapman, a husband and father of two, and an avid athlete who loved to exercise.
"He just likes the challenge, he liked anything that was going to be hard to do," John's wife, Jody Chapman, says.
After watching his wife Jody run the Bix, she says he was determined to run it himself.
"The whole next year his training was, ‘I'm going to beat my wife, I'm going to beat my wife,'" Jody Chapman says.
John never got that chance; he died of a pulmonary embolism while running, just one mile short of finishing.
"Now looking back, there were some things that I maybe would've pointed towards him having some heart disease," Jody says.
She says she found antacids while she was going through John's things, a sign of heartburn and one of the symptoms of a serious heart condition.
"John being fairly healthy though, and maybe it just never crossed his mind," she says.
Now John's family is turning a hobby into an awareness campaign. John's mother, Rosemary, is selling knitting kits with a personal design symbolizing John's cause.
"It's for anyone, and hopefully we'll prevent someone from having happen to them what happened to my son," Rosemary Chapman says.
Her goal is to sell 2000 kits to raise $50,000 for free heart screenings and education, and she says it's all for her son.
"There's days I can't even breath, I just am overwhelmed," she says, "Then there's that thought in the back of my mind, John would be the first to be like ‘Mom, get up, get moving, do something.'"
"Possibly that dollar that I raised might be the one that saves somebody or finds a cure," Chapman says.
If you'd like to purchase a knitting kit, they are $25/each and all the proceeds will go to Genesis Heart Institute.
To order: email John's mother, Rosemary, at thefisherman@rio-express.net or call (309) 343-5323.
