The former police officer will be among hundreds of competitors taking part in the run-up Wednesday
BURLINGTON COUNTY, N.J. — Ten heart attacks, autoimmune and blood-clotting diseases and an amputated leg — none of that’s going to stop Brandon Holiday.
The former decorated police officer will be among hundreds of competitors taking part in the Empire State Building Run-Up in New York City on Wednesday.
Holiday, 46, is a mentor for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, the official charity for the event that teamed with sponsor Turkish Airlines to hold the 41st annual run up the iconic building’s 86 flights of stairs.
He credited the foundation with making this and numerous other competitions possible for him and many more athletes with disabilities.
“The support and the people I’ve met through Challenged Athletes helped me evolve and get my competitive spirit back,” Holiday said.
He has systemic lupus erythematosus and Addison’s disease, a rare blood-clotting condition, which led to numerous health complications, including multiple heart attacks and eventually the loss of his leg.
For more than a decade, Holiday has been assisted by the foundation. He’s grateful for “being able to have others to connect with and develop and figure things out and to have that support that if I’m down, there’s someone there to kick me in the ass,” Holiday said with a laugh.
“It’s not a pity party. It’s just being back around the mindset of what I was doing as a police officer, and the majority of the guys in my unit were all prior military.”
Despite his medical condition, which happens to be flaring up now, Holiday, a former police officer in Salisbury, Maryland, and an investigator in Philadelphia, will be among the 250 people expected to take on the Empire State challenge.
“I’ve been sick with lupus for the last two weeks, but I’m still going to do the event,” he said. “If I can’t finish the race, my goal is to do 22 flights for veterans suicide awareness.”
Holiday, who lived in Moorestown, New Jersey, for several years and even set up the nonprofit Athletes With Disabilities Network’s Northeast chapter in town, doesn’t expect to race up the stairs. He’ll just do his best to show the world that athletes like him can shine if given the opportunity.
He knows all about such opportunities.
Just 10 months after his amputation, Holiday attended the Extremity Games in 2007 with the help of the foundation’s Operation Rebound program and fell in love with kayaking. With that passion for the sport and support by the foundation, Holiday has paddled his way to five gold medals at the U.S. Sprint Kayak National Championships along with serving as an advocate for athletes with disabilities in the Northeast.
“I grew up in a military family. And a lot of my buddies are in the military, and some have committed suicide. So it’s making sure that people are aware that there’s help needed,” he said, fighting back tears. “That’s what Operation Rebound does. It’s using sports as a catalyst to heal.”
In addition to kayaking, swimming and biking, Holiday organizes sporting activities throughout the state for people with disabilities, including one last summer that drew 108 participants to Cooper River Park in Pennsauken.
“We’re doing it on a regular basis now,” he said of the activities. “It’s expanding out and it’s growing.”
Wednesday’s run-up is more than just a personal challenge to Holiday. For him, the reactions of the other participants make all the work worth it.
“Just seeing the (athletes’) faces and them saying, ‘I can still do this’ or ‘I’m not alone’ is everything.” he said.
Although his health setbacks ended his career in law enforcement, Holiday remains committed to serving others in similar circumstances.
“Now that passion is the mentoring and outreach and helping others that are going through the same thing,” he said.
Todd McHale is a reporter for The Burlington County (N.J.) Times.