Sharing Miracles: A Second Chance at Life

Adam Keighran a 27 year old Boutique Wine Salesmen from Miranda credits Miracle Babies Foundation for giving him the inspiration to change his life.

THE GAIN

Adam admits he had always been a relatively large guy due to a bad diet of mainly deli meats and cheeses and washing those down with beer or wine. At 26 years of age he found himself weighing in at 132.4kg.

“I was slowly but surely getting larger and larger and clothes were beginning to get tighter and tighter. I didn’t really worry about it at the time because i wasn’t actually acknowledging that 4XL shirts and a size 46” waistline actually meant I was an extremely obese individual. I was pretty much just ignoring the problem and refusing to accept what was staring back at me in the mirror”.

THE CHANGE

12 months ago suffering gout, Adam made an appointment to see his local GP who was appalled at Adam’s state of health saying that he was “a walking stroke with ridiculously high blood pressure”. Medication was prescribed and the GP said that “I bet $100,000 that, unless you change your lifestyle, you won’t make it to see 40”. At the age of 26, he was effectively killing himself. For Adam these hard truths hurt but unfortunately not much really changed.

It wasn’t until Adam came across the Miracle Babies Foundation that he began to appreciate (for the first time) the enormity of his my situation and decided he needed to make some drastic changes.

Adam is in fact a “miracle baby” who was born at 27 weeks (3months early). He weighed a tiny 980 grams, had a collapsed lung and required heart surgery.

He began reading about some of the babies that were born in similar situations and began to understand the enormity of his situation, and felt ashamed of what he’s let himself become. “The heart-ache that some of these families went through, after losing their child made me fully appreciate life, It was at that moment that I made a promise to myself that i would start living life to the fullest make every moment count”.

THE RESULT

21 weeks into his new life Adam has shed an amazing 44.2kg. He now loves his daily jog or bike ride and has enrolled as a student in the Australian Institute of Personal Trainers. It took the strong truths of a doctor and the inspirational, yet tragic stories from some miracle families to snap him into action and he has not looked back since.

Adam has just completed his first half-marathon and did it in under 1:50. He felt there was no better way to celebrate than to raise some funds for Miracle Babies and we are so proud in his achievements in raising over $2000. Adam is pleased to add that his GP was truly amazed with his transformation and said he would now be considered “a very healthy and fit young man". And his mum is so thankful for finding a stray balloon "back in the day" with Miracle Babies Foundation written on the side, "it's turned a lot around"