An 8-year-old girl with a disability is beating the odds, running her first 5K, even though she says her doctors told her she wouldn’t be able to do it.
Clementine White was born with spina bifida, which affects her ability to move.
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"She has done physical therapy her entire life, and she was maybe 3 months old, and I asked her physical therapist, 'What's this going to be like?'" mom Christy White told WATE. "And she told me she'll probably be in a wheelchair, so I just decided I wasn't going to ask again."
Clementine is now 8 and doesn’t let anything stop her from doing what she wants to do. She recently came home from school with a flyer for an all-girls running club. She wanted to join.
“This is I think the first time she’s brought something like this home, and the initial reaction was kind of like, ‘ugh,’ because you hate to have your kids fail at something that they’re interested in,” said Clementine’s father, Brandon White.
Despite their initial hesitations, Clementine’s parents were supportive of her decision to join the running club. The club recently ran a 5K, and Clementine completely surprised her parents as well as herself.
“My doctors said it wouldn’t be possible for me to walk or run,” said Clementine. “But then I’m starting to walk, and I’m starting to run.”
She completed the 5K alongside her friends.
“She just blows my mind with the things she was willing to do and the things that, like, she just lets roll off her back,” said Christy. “As her mom, I’m like, ‘Let me nurture you.’ And she has done so much more nurturing for me, I think, than I her, and the way that she just moves forward one step at a time.”
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