After Being Diagnosed with MS, This 52-Year-Old Ran Marathons on All 7 Continents — and the North Pole (Exclusive)

• Derek Stefureac was at work when the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis appeared, sharing that the diagnosis was “like a punch in the stomach.”
• The Las Vegas resident started running to quit smoking — and soon worked his way up to a marathon
• Stefureac, 52, has since run at least one marathon on all 7 continents – and ran at the North Pole last August

Derek Stefureac was having a normal day at work, talking to a colleague, when the first symptoms appeared.

“I felt really intense numbness in my left foot,” Stefureac, 52, tells PEOPLE. “That numbness started going up my calf to my knee and then to my hip.”

The feeling spread quickly, he says. “For maybe fifteen, twenty seconds — fast enough to drive me a little crazy. He moved to my torso, my left arm became very stiff and I couldn’t move it.”

His colleague called 911 — and over the next few months, Stefureac says, doctors tried to figure out what was going on.

Derek Stefureac is running his first marathon in Las Vegas.

Courtesy of Derek Stefureac

But it wasn’t until he had an MRI in the spring of 2011 that they saw the telltale lesions on his brain.

“That’s when he said, ‘Yes, you have MS,'” Stefureac tells PEOPLE, calling the diagnosis “a punch in the gut.”

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“I have never known anyone in my life who had MS. So I didn’t really know what it was. I knew it was something you didn’t want to have — you know, one of those diseases with initials.”

MS, short for multiple sclerosis, is a disease in which “the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes problems with communication between your brain and the rest of your body,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or degeneration of nerve fibers.”

Shortly after his diagnosis, Stefureac, an electrical engineer, said he decided to “get healthy” and took up running at first because it “helped me quit smoking.”

But then, he said, “when I started running, I noticed I was limping and that was my biggest symptom of MS that I didn’t even know I had — because I’d never run in the previous 10 years.”

Derek Stefureac ran a marathon on all 7 continents.

Volcanic marathon / Runbuk

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“There was a fear of the progression of this disease and I decided that I would do everything to prevent it from happening. I thought that if I just ran more, it would trigger those neurons from my brain to my leg and foot and everything thousands of times. It has to be better.”

So Stefureac kept running, working his way up to a half-marathon — and then ran his first marathon, at Mount Charleston outside his native Las Vegas, in 2018.

After his second marathon he decided “let’s do something really cool.”

“I saw that there is a marathon in Antarctica. and I thought, ‘Oh my God, that would be so great.’ ”

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He has already registered for marathons in South America and Paris — and in December 2021, Stefureac arrived in Antarctica. Then he knew that it was possible to run a marathon on all continents.

The Mount Everest Base Camp Marathon knocked Asia off the list last year. “It involves a two-week trek to base camp, two nights at base camp, and then running back,” Stefureac tells PEOPLE.

Derek Stefureac.

Courtesy of Derek Stefureac

After Mount Everest, Stefureac and his daughter, Madison, 20, ran together in the Entabeni Game Preserve in South Africa.

Brisbane, Australia followed – and Stefureac completed his continental run with a marathon at the North Pole last August.

“It’s all just a frozen Arctic Ocean and they put in a little track and we ran 16.2 miles around this track.”

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He said that when you need to pass a runner, you have to go into food-deep snow off the trail.

And the whole time, “we had to wear life jackets.” he says, because of “weaker spots in the ice” and open water.

Now, not only has he run marathons on every continent, Stefureac has set his sights on the Boston Marathon.

Derek Stefurac and his daughter Madison ran together in South Africa.

Courtesy of Derek Stefureac

“I believe my running really helps fight MS,” he tells PEOPLE. “I haven’t had any symptoms in a while.”

“I have less pain,” he says, but “some symptoms of MS can sometimes just mimic the symptoms of aging.”

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And though he jokes, “the news, diet and exercise is good for you,” Stefureac adds, “that was really an extreme case in my case. It’s like diet and exercise with a few exclamation marks.”

But mostly, she hopes people will realize that “there are people out there succeeding, even living not just an ordinary life — but an extraordinary life — with MS.”

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Source: HIS Education