PHOTOS: The inspiring story of the police officer who helped a struggling runner
A powerful photo of a police officer helping a woman cross the finish line of the Rodes City Run in Louisville, Kentucky has gone viral after being shared on Reddit.
Asia Ford was participating in her first 10k (six miles) on Saturday. She began to feel sick after the fourth mile - and from his car, Lt. Aubrey Gregory noticed that she was beginning to falter.
"I'm not going to let her quit, so I got out and she immediately grabbed my hand," LMPD Lt. Aubrey Gregory later told Whas11.
"He asked me if I wanted to stop and I was like, 'No,' we have two more miles to go," Ford recalled.
So the pair kept going.
Joined by her son, they talked about Asia's struggle with her weight as they edged towards the finish line.
Asia told him that, at her heaviest, she weighed 474 pounds (33.8 stone). After her then-husband lost a limb to diabetes and her children became scared for her own health, she knew she had to make a change.
They kept running as they talked and before they knew it, there were only a few steps left in the race.
"When I watched her approach and I started to hear people scream and I let her go right there before the end and to see her raise her hands, there aren't words to express the way I felt seeing her be successful," said Gregory.
"It was really a special moment," Ford added.
Photos of the pair were posted to Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer's Facebook page and they were widely shared with many praising Ford's perseverance and Gregory's kindness.
