SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 A San Diego man battling progressive supranuclear palsy refused to let his terminal brain disease stop him from crossing the finish line of a 5K run, surrounded by dozens of supporters who helped push his wheelchair to victory.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Hughes, who was diagnosed with PSP, completed the race in one hour and eight minutes with the help of Team Hughes, a group of 55 people who took turns pushing his wheelchair throughout the course.<\/p>\n
“People with PSP are not restricted,” Hughes said.<\/p>\n
Progressive supranuclear palsy is a rare brain disorder that affects movement, control of walking and balance. The disease is progressive and terminal, but Hughes has chosen not to let his diagnosis define his limitations.<\/p>\n
His wife, Allison Lipton, said the team spent about 30 days preparing for the event.<\/p>\n
“This has been a build up for about 30 or so days that we decided we were gonna do this,” Lipton said. “We are at the start line and we’re ready to get to the finish line, and it’s just an incredible event.”<\/p>\n
The couple assembled Team Hughes, which grew to include 55 supporters who were determined to help Jonathan reach his goal.<\/p>\n
“We’re all gonna be pushing the chair. This is a group effort,” Lipton said.<\/p>\n
Judith Miller, Jonathan’s nurse from Radiant Hospice, said the overwhelming support demonstrates the power of community.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got more friends than you realize that are there to support you and if there’s something that’s important to you, it’ll be important to those that care about you and you can make anything happen,” Miller said.<\/p>\n
For Lipton, seeing her husband complete the race defied expectations about what people with PSP can accomplish.<\/p>\n
“This isn’t supposed to happen in this stage of PSP. He’s not supposed to be out here enjoying himself and screw it, we’re not going to let anybody tell us what we can or can’t do, here we are,” Lipton said.<\/p>\n
Jonathan was honored with a medal after crossing the finish line, proving that determination and community support can overcome even the most challenging obstacles.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 A San Diego man battling progressive supranuclear palsy refused to let his terminal brain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[15336,81512,5469,81513,74,76,75,81514,81515,81516],"class_list":{"0":"post-169942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-5k","9":"tag-jonathan-hughes","10":"tag-liberty-station","11":"tag-psp","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-supranuclear-palsy","16":"tag-team-hughes","17":"tag-terminal-brain-disease"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}