One Northern Virginia man recently ran 200 miles from Hampton to Fairfax to raise money and awareness about the seriousness of opioid addiction.
Cole Parvin called this challenge Helene’s Run in recognition of his late mother, who died from an opioid overdose in June 2014 when he was 12 years old.
He said that it was important to run the race, which took around 52.5 hours, spanning Oct. 22-25, because of how much his mother meant to him.
“My mom was such an amazing person, and she had gone through so much her whole life and opioid addiction,” Parvin said. “It was so important to me … to raise money and awareness for something that could possibly help kids, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives in the future to just save at least one life.”
He finished the race at his grandmother’s house in Fairfax, where Helene died. Parvin says he felt his mother’s presence when he completed the run.
According to Parvin, his mother’s addiction to opioids started when she was in a car accident before he was born and was prescribed medication. Her condition got worse over time as he was growing up, particularly after his parents divorced when he was 8 years old.
“She was incarcerated for a year. She went to rehab facilities,” he said.
Parvin created the Helene’s Run challenge to support the Chris Atwood Foundation, a Fairfax-based nonprofit dedicated to providing free substance use recovery and support services, including naloxone kits, housing grants, and counseling. So far, the challenge has raised over $24,000 for the foundation.
The money raised by Helene’s Run will specifically support the foundation’s mobile Narcan distribution efforts in Fairfax City.
Parvin hopes that his 200-mile run will inspire other people to not give up.
“No matter how hard life gets, you can still take another step, even though your body might be screaming at you, your mind might be telling you that you can’t do it,” he said. “It is always possible that you can take another step if you believe and if your why is strong enough.”
Parvin said that losing his mother to opioid addiction has changed his life in many ways, as he missed her presence at many childhood milestones.
“It doesn’t fully hit you when you’re that young. It’s almost like it hits you in a lot of pieces as you grow up, graduating high school, graduating college, playing college football. It hits you in those moments where you want her there,” Parvin told FFXnow. “It also gives me the opportunity to keep going and keep showing her that I can be the son that she raised me to be.”
Parvin said that if his mother were alive today, he believes she would tell him that she loves him.
“She has been here for me every step of the way, and [she would say] that I wouldn’t have had to do any of this to make her proud, that she was proud of me no matter what,” he said.
