Medals4Mettle will spread across the globe as an international currency of human goodwill and support. The day after he finished the 2003 Chicago Marathon, Steven Isenberg, M.D., a head and neck surgeon in Indianapolis, paid a visit to a colleague who was hospitalized. Dr. Isenberg, 53, was on a postrace high. Les Taylor, who had prostate cancer, lay flat on his back with tubes running in and out
of him. At a loss for words, Dr. Isenberg pulled his finishers' medal from his pocket and placed it around Taylor's neck. "I want you to have this," he said. "You are running a much more difficult marathon than the one I completed." Before he died, Taylor told Dr. Isenberg how much he treasured the medal. Those words inspired Dr. Isenberg to start Medals4Mettle in 2005, as a vehicle to collect runner's medals which could be donated to those who are battling serious and debilitating illnesses and who have demonstrated similar courage and mettle in fighting those illnesses. Certainly everyone cannot run a marathon, but people who are battling life-threatening illnesses and severe disabilities demonstrate mettle everyday. Marathon runners experience the cheers of support from total strangers as they run through the streets, and these same runners cheer the wheelchair competitors that they may pass on the course. Medals4Mettle celebrates our collective human courage, and our innate desire to reward and support each other as we all face life’s challenges. Since 2005, Medals4Mettle has been featured as the Grand Prize selection for the inaugural “Human Race” section of Runner’s World (September, 2008) and in many local and national publications. Medals4Mettle was also selected as the initial recipient of “The Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine” award (2009). By 2010, Medals4Mettle had awarded over 18,000 medals to recipients across the world including events in London and Paris where Dr. Isenberg personally awarded American medals to sick children and their families. Medals have been awarded by Indy 500 race car drivers, Olympic athletes and individuals who want to experience the incredible joy of giving their hard-earned finisher’s medals to courageous human beings.
