Stroke survivor Celina McMichael ran the New York City Marathon on Nov. 5, 2023. Courtesy photo
KENNEBUNK — Celina McMichael has her mojo back.
McMichael is a longtime runner and a survivor of five strokes, the most recent of which took place in 2021. Last year was her triumphant return to racing. She ran the Boston Marathon in 3 hours and 50 minutes and the New York City Marathon in 3 hours and 55 minutes.
She’ll be running the Boston Marathon again this spring with Tedy’s Team, a nonprofit that funds stroke research and increases stroke awareness. She ran and fundraised with Tedy’s Team in her last two races, and credits the organization with helping her have a positive experience.
“For the first time I really felt like myself again,” she said, reflecting on 2023.
McMichael has always been an athlete. She grew up snowboarding and completed at least seven marathons before the strokes she suffered in 2019 and 2021. She sees her most recent marathons as part of her healing process.
While running a marathon is a huge physical feat, that’s not the only part that has revived McMichael’s spirit. “All of 2023 was a big year for sharing my story,” she said.
McMichael has gone on a speaking tour of sorts, talking about her stroke experience at Graves Memorial Library this past March and at the Nonantum Resort in September. The event at the Nonantum was a fundraiser put on by the American Heart Association, and McMichael was its ambassador for 2023. On Jan. 30, she’ll also speak at another AHA stroke survivor event in Falmouth.
She wants people to understand stroke symptoms so they can identify them and act quickly. “I find a lot of people, especially women, have had stroke-like symptoms, which can be easily confused with migraine.”
McMichael ran the NYC Marathon in 3 hours and 55 minutes. Courtesy photo
A stroke can occur when blood is blocked from the brain, or a person experiences sudden bleeding in their brain. Common symptoms include trouble speaking or understanding speech, vision problems, numbness or paralysis in the body, and headache.
Research suggests that experiencing a minor stroke is common among adults. According to a 2017 survey from the American Heart Association, roughly one in three American adults have had symptoms consistent with a warning or mini stroke but very few — only 3 percent — sought immediate medical care.
McMichael became one of those one in three Americans when she was practically still a kid, just 19 years old. Her stroke symptoms included some loss of vision and speech and loss of mobility in the left side of her body. The year was 2000 and she was living in Outer Banks, North Carolina, where she did not have easy access to medical care or health insurance, so when her symptoms subsided she just shrugged off the incident. Not long after, she had more stroke symptoms and went to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with an ischemic stroke, when a vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked.
Into her 30s, she experienced smaller stroke episodes that puzzled doctors, but in 2019 she had two more debilitating strokes that left her with a drooping face, inability to swallow, a non-working left hand and difficulty breathing. She recovered relatively quickly and doctors believed they had nailed down the cause — a hole in her heart called a PFO, according to McMichael, which she had closed in November of that year.
She wasn’t supposed to have another stroke after that — but she did, in 2021. When it happened she was snowboarding in Vermont and far away from good medical care.
“My dreams of having a known cause became shattered at this moment,” she recalled in a blog post penned in 2022.
She’s mostly recovered now. “Sometimes I’ll kind of flub up some words, but it’s definitely not severe at all. Medically, currently, I’m totally fine.” These days she’s busy homeschooling her son, age 6, and is thinking about putting her yoga skills to use by offering a yoga class for homeschoolers. She also has two daughters who are 15 and 20.
Given McMichael’s passion for running, it’s no surprise she gravitated towards Tedy’s Team, the nonprofit she fundraises for and runs with. The organization was founded by Tedy Bruschi, a former New England Patriots linebacker, in conjunction with the American Stroke Association after Bruschi suffered a stroke at 31 in 2005. Bruschi had just won his third Super Bowl, he was in the prime of his career. He and his family founded the 501c3 to raise money for stroke research and de-stigmatize stroke.
Tedy’s Team worked with the MGH Institute of Health Professions to open the Tedy’s Team Center of Excellence in Stroke Recovery in 2023, a facility that aims to improve quality of life for stroke survivors through clinical research and education. The center was made possible by a $1 million gift from Tedy’s Team. Marathoners running on behalf of the charity have raised over $8 million.
“It’s pretty amazing to see what Tedy Bruschi has done,” said McMichaels.
McMichael wants to see people at Garden Street Bowl in Kennebunk on March 5, which will be hosting a fundraiser for Tedy’s Team with a raffle. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from bowling that night will go to support the work of the charity.
She’s hoping to raise $10,000 for Tedy’s Team by the Boston Marathon. To make a donation, visit www.givengain.com/project/celina-raising-funds-for-tedys-team-67687.
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