The Boomer Magazine

My father-in-law overcomes personal loss and problems — he has’t got time for the pain BY LORI ROSS   This year the oldest man to complete the Monument Avenue 10k was my father-in-law, 88-year-old Lin Thacker. The grand-kids call him “Peepaw.” I enjoy his general cuteness, quirkiness and gentle disposition. How did he end up walking [...]

  The Martin Agency’s Mike Hughes finds grace and humor in his last days – BY BARBAR FITZGERALD –   Mike Hughes, president of The Martin Agency, Richmond’s advertising powerhouse, was told this past December at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York that he had two weeks to live. As an old newspaperman [...]

  6.2 miles of adrenaline, spirit, inspiration, music, costumes, competition, parties, cheering and personal achievement … not to mention 70,000 runners, walkers and fans  – BY TERRI L. JONES –  – PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF SPORTS BACKERS –    There’s enough energy at the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k to power the city. Music is pulsing, people are [...]

Omega-3 fatty acids – fish oils – really do prolong our lives     – BY DANIEL JONES –    Each year, 600,000 – or one out of every four – American deaths arise from heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for [...]

7 Stories of Hope: ‘It’s Given Me My Life Back’ — Backpack-size portable heart driver fills in for a transplant – BY ROB WALKER – For the first time in two years, Paula Heggins was home for the holidays. She’d spent the previous two in the hospital dealing with a hereditary heart condition that came close [...]

7 Stories of Hope: ‘It Was a Piece of Cake — Like Magic’ — Transcatheter valve replacement replaces open-heart surgery – BY PAULA NEELY AND ROB WALKER –    Last fall, Ronald Martin, an 82- year-old professor at Lynchburg College, had trouble breathing and walking from his car to his office. “Finally, I couldn’t walk [...]

7 Stories of Hope: ‘I Was Destined to Stay Here’ — New ventricular assisted device came along just in time for a damaged heart – BY DANIEL JONES –  In 2011, while visiting North Carolina, Louis “Pee Wee” W. Powers was rushed to the hospital after losing three times in a 24-hour period.  It was [...]

7 stories of Hope: ‘A Life of Normalcy’ — Deep brain stimulation helps overcome Parkinson’s disease – BY DANIEL JONES – In 2000, in her late 40s, Rita Barnes was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system marked by tremors, muscular rigidity and slow, imprecise movement. Her first medication had the [...]

7 stories of Hope: ‘How Close I Came’ — New leukemia therapy is showing promise in clinical trial – BY TERRI L. JONES –  When standard chemotherapy wasn’t delivering the desired results for Roberta Richardson’s leukemia, her oncologist recommended she participate in a clinical trial at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center. Being a test subject [...]

– BY PAULA NEELY –    Last Election Day, Weldon Bradshaw, a 64-year-old teacher and cross-country coach at Collegiate School in Richmond, learned that he would be dead within a week unless he received a liver transplant. Bradshaw said his systems were “shutting down” as a result of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), an autoimmune disease in which [...]