JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4JAX is teaming up with First Coast Heart Walk at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds on Saturday morning.
Proceeds help the American Heart Association’s work on research and treatment for those affected by heart disease and stroke, helping people like Frue McAvoy, who had fun visiting the News4JAX studios this week.
McAvoy walked through our newsroom meeting editors and reporters. He uses a walker to steady his steps after a massive, series of strokes landed him in the hospital, where doctors had to put McAvoy in a paralytic state to treat him.
“Probably past five years or so, I’ve been in the fitness industry and Olive 23, I was a personal trainer and online trainer helping others with their goals,” McAvoy said.
He said he was planning a wedding and ate some cheese that got stuck in his throat.
“So my artery actually dissected, when it dissected the blood, it hit my cerebellum and my brain stem, which controls most of your motor senses, your airway stuff like that. Being able to walk, talk, all that to see,” McAvoy said.
He said doctors told him his brain stem tore off when he was choking.
“And what they have told me is that it was tearing beforehand. However when I choked, it had torn open and gone off kind of like fireworks,” McAvoy said.
He said the recovery process was like starting over as a baby again.
“We learned how to walk and I just knew it’s going to take day by day, but I knew if I was alive, there was a chance,” he said. “I knew I would get better and, that’s the hope I held onto.”
It’s been almost two years since his stroke and his motivation grows stronger each day, focusing on his family and opportunities to inspire others like he did during last year’s First Coast Heart Walk.
“We had 25,000 people there last year walking wheelchairs, whatever they could do just to get over that finish line,” McAvoy said.
Heart disease and stroke are the number one and five causes of death in the U.S.