Step By Step: A Member Highlights A Patient’s Incredible Story
Like many of our members, Dr. Jeter has plenty of incredible stories to tell about his experience with his patients. Many of these stories can be inspiring, informative, educational–and when he shares them with the wider community he not only furthers a good cause but he also taps into a powerful means for connecting with others, spreading awareness of chiropractic, and significant marketing potential for his own business.
- Inspiring
- Informative
- Educational
- Surprising
- Relatable
Highlighting other patients can be a very useful way to engage with others, forge closer relationships with the people you treat and their wider community. It’s good for them, good for your community, and good for your practice.
STEP BY STEP
A Carolina Chiropractors Member Highlights His Patient's Incredible Story
Recently, John Weaver of Salisbury, NC celebrated his 70th birthday by walking a somewhat astounding 70,000 steps–1,000 for every year. If you are someone who finds getting your daily steps in to be an occasionally grueling but necessary task for keeping healthy, maybe this doesn’t strike you as an appealing way to spend your birthday. Speaking as someone with relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis, who has brushed against the notion of losing the ability to walk normally, I rather think this is an incredibly appropriate way to celebrate being alive. While I am certainly envious of the date of John’s birthday–the nexus of winter and spring in North Carolina is certainly the ideal time to take an epic birthday hike–I became determined to take on a similar challenge when my own birthday comes in June (oof…maybe I’ll just start having my birthday parties around Easter). When Dr. Jeter shared John’s accomplishment with me, interested and more than a little inspired, we decided to share his story.
Two years ago, as chairman of Christian Light Missions, John was looking for financial support to initiate a project in Peña Blanca, Honduras to build a woodworking shop to provide the young men and women who live there with a means to earn a living, provide for their families, and build futures there in their home town. As he had a relatively sizable audience already interested in his work there on Facebook, he decided he would ask supporters to sponsor a walk–pledging a dollar amount per mile. Perhaps thinking he would just walk 5 or 10 miles, the pledges began arriving in amounts of $5, $10, $15. I’m not sure if they were aware, but John had set his sights on 30 miles!! He took to his feet at 4:00a in the morning, and a little over a full marathon’s length, about 60,000 steps, and almost 14-hours later, John hit the 30 mile finish line. Together with the people who supported him, John helped raise over $10,000 for the mission.
He did 63,000 steps the next year. This year, as he approached his 70th birthday, he decided he wanted to hit 1,000 steps for each lap he had taken around the Sun. But just as the first year, this wasn’t just an exercise in celebrating his life and health. John knows a family here in North Carolina who have spent decades walking along their own incredible path. A couple with two children who both received heart transplants as babies. Their son Austin received another heart transplant at just 14 years-old. Tragically, he was soon diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and passed away just two years later. A sincere and devout faith in God has kept their family together, often traveling to inspire others in churches, prisons, and anywhere they sense their presence will help do good. Austin’s sister Alissa is now 23 years-old, and continues to fight the illnesses that have marked her entire life. This last year has been extraordinarily trying and difficult on almost everyone, and even more so for them. So as he has done for the last two years, John decided to once again put his dedicated supporters and his own two feet to work, feeding his own joyous light into the life of others.
Thanks to our sponsors for supporting our ongoing mission to advance and promote chiropractic in North Carolina. If your company would like to contribute to Carolina Chiropractors, we offer a variety of sponsorship packages to create valuable opportunities and resources for our partners. Click here to contact us today!
Our Blog