Earlier this week, I was working out in the early morning and an ESPN piece caught my eye.  It was the story of Latipha Cross, who currently is a freshman running track at Eastern Michigan University.  The volume was muted so I was actually reading the words on the TV, but her story is nothing short of incredible and I thought would be a great blog post today.

She did not have a fairy tale childhood

Latipha was born in Detroit to a teenage mother who I think had drug issues.  Eventually, the mother abandoned Latipha and her older sister.  The father was not in the picture either.  Latipha and her sister went to live with foster parents.

When she was 6, her older sister was killed in a drive by shooting at the home of her foster parents.  Not necessarily intended for the sister, she was an innocent casualty.

To make matters even worse, her foster parents abused her.  They would repeatedly beat her with a belt for anything.  She was beaten so bad one time she threw up.  Despite the beatings, at the time she felt they were doing it for love.

Run, Run, Run!

What she could do well where no one would touch her was on the track.  She was fast.  She won races all the time when she started running in junior high.  That is where she took out her anger and frustration was on the track.

One track coach said that she just ran angry.  She wasn’t going to let anybody beat her in the track.

Finally, as a sophomore she said enough was enough and left her foster parents.  She would bounce around to live with different friends, but a lot of the time she would sleep in parks.  Her biggest fear was that someone would attack her and leave her for dead.

Around this time her biological father came back into the picture.  Here she thought finally someone will be able to take care of me.  Then he blew up on her one day.  He punched her in the face, in the chest, and then sexually assaulted her.

She got out of that situation and found a friend whose family would take her in on a more permanent basis.  Now she could finally focus on track and her new goal.  Attaining a track scholarship.

This girl can’t get any breaks

During her junior season, Latipha was diagnosed with cancer, melanoma.  She started doing chemo to battle it while still continuing to run track.  She was able to make it to the state finals in the 400M dash.

Here she was coming off her final chemo treatments and running 400M as hard as she could.  And you know what..she won!  Not only did she win, she set the state record in the 400M with a 54.29.  That is an awesome time.

Right then and there Eastern Michigan gave her a full scholarship and she accepted.  Things were going great until her senior season when again she received devastating news.  Cancer had returned to her body, but this time it was lymphoma.

Again she went through chemotherapy and again she made it to the state finals in the 400M to defend her title.  This time she couldn’t pull out a victory and got second by .3 of a second.

Hopefully a silver lining

For now she is cancer free.  She has a full scholarship to Eastern Michigan and has been running indoor track.  In her words, “I can’t believe they are giving me a free education to be a better person and all I got to do in return is run.”

Good things are ahead for this young lady.  Through all she has been through, she knows that there will be a point where she will finally be happy.  Through her sheer will and determination, she has forged a path in her life that will probably be something she will be very proud of.  If Latipha can do it, my guess is you can too.