At Sunday's Oasis Rock 'N' Roll Montreal Marathon, 25-year-old PhD student Lena Faust will be running the half marathon for the first time.
Faust has cerebral palsy, a movement disorder that weakens the muscles and causes poor coordination and tremors.
CP, she said, taught her to push herself.
"As long as you set yourself goals that you work towards, you can adjust for having certain difficulties," she said. "Everyone has problems right. It might not be CP, it might be something else, but we all have our limitations, and I think having cerebral palsy really made me see the benefits of trying to push those limitations and that can really get you to places you didn't think you could get to."
She is raising money for the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Registry.
"I know how important funding is, and I thought as someone with cerebral palsy, it would be nice to contribute to that," said the student who does research on tuberculosis.
Faust knows first-hand that scientists need more information to defeat debilitating diseases.
"It's really important to have good data on which to base healthcare decisions, healthcare service delivery, and especially with a disease like cerebral palsy that's a long-term, permanent condition, I think it's really important to have long-term follow up of children with cerebral palsy in Canada," she said.
Donations are being accepted through the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation website.
