Oklahomans To Take Part In Fight For Air Climb Fundraiser Saturday

Justin Dick will be climbing stairs Saturday for a very personal cause. His father died of lung cancer when Justin was just 6 years old.

Justin will scale nearly 800 steps in honor of his father at the Fight for Air Climb Saturday at UCO’s Wantland Stadium, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. 

Justin also gets treatment for asthma, and recently became a board member with the lung association. 

“If this organization can raise awareness to prevent even one more child or one more family to have to go through that loss or delay that loss, I feel what better use of my time," said Justin.

The event is normally done inside, but this year’s fundraiser will be done al fresca, just one of the many ways the pandemic has changed things for the lung association. 

They will also be raising money for their COVID-19 fund. 

“We’ve added a brand-new lung disease to our mission. We have a saying at the American Lung Association, ‘when you can’t breathe nothing else matters,’ and that just feels even more important right now," said Terri Bailey, executive director at the American Lung Association. 

The event will also have a Climb Your Way option for people who can’t make it to the stadium Saturday. 

Wherever you are, participating in the event will help people with lung disease, and in the same breath, teach you what it's like for people dealing with it.  

“Once you start really going, you do feel it in your lungs. So you’re feeling, for just a few minutes, what it is to have lung disease," said Bailey.

And when Justin is trying to catch his breath amidst the ascent, he knows just who he’ll be thinking about. 

“It’s going to get me over those last few steps. I know it,” he said. 

There is still time to step up to the challenge. Registration goes until Thursday at midnight. You can sign up here.