The world has lost a truly inspirational soul. Those of us that are part of the sporting world will know who I'm talking about. In 2006 John Challis was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer and told he would have 6 months to live. He never gave up. He set out to teach people how to live life to the fullest. "Life ain't about how many breaths you take. It's what you do with those breaths."

John had a profile done on sportcenter, spent a game day inspiring the Pittsburgh Pirates, spent a day with Arod, and brought Tampa Bay Ray's coach Joe Madden and many of the Pirates to tears with his story. John's story inspired thousands, every day he would receive cards and such in the mail, people would call his home just to talk to him and it all kept him going. "Everybody is scared. It's not normal to not be scared," John said of his plight. "But I'm not scared as much now. I have letters and other things from people, telling me how I've helped so many people in numerous ways. That makes me feel good."

John Challis passed away yesterday afternoon, he was 18 years old.

Thank you for all you've done, John, we will all miss you.


http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3543534

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08232/905451-100.stm

http://www.courageforlifefoundation.org/ - the foundation John set up


A link to facebook group for those inspired by him:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31089252168#/group.php?gid=31089252168