Time
Kenny Wingfield
is glad he did
by Chloe Toussaint
U.S. Probation Officer Kenny Wingfield has been diagnosed
with polio, neurofibromatosis,
two blocked arteries and, yes,
multiple sclerosis (in 1992). He
has had a hip replacement, surgery
on his inner ear that permanently
affected his hearing and balance,
surgery on his right leg that considerably shortened it, and surgery
on an infected foot.
Kenny Wingfield on his other bike
So where do you typically
find Kenny? Either training for,
or riding in, a Bike MS ride,
including many of 150 or more
miles. He has participated in
over 30 rides, including a coast-to-coast ride from Los Angeles,
Calif., to Boston, Mass., in
2002, and a north-south ride
from International Falls, Minn.,
to New Orleans, La., in 2006.
“Today was just another day. If
you think getting up at 0500,
eating bowls of oatmeal and
Kenny Wingfield’s
can-do attitude keeps
him on the road.
fruit and drinking cups of O.J.
and coffee, and then getting on
a bicycle and pedaling over 65
miles is just another day! ;o)”
wrote Kenny in an online journal he kept of that adventure.
Kenny got started in his
two-wheeled quest to end MS in
1991, just before he was diag-
nosed. “I used to ride a bike as a
kid and the thought
of training to ride
150 miles in two
days seemed quite
demanding. Count
me in!”
But then, MS
stepped in. “After
riding my bike a few
days, my right leg
began to go numb.
I thought I had
pinched a nerve. The
next morning, I was
rattled to the core when I found
my entire body, from my chest
to my toes, had gone numb!”
After an MRI and spinal tap,
a local neurologist diagnosed
him with MS. Another physi-
cian adjusted the diagnosis
to neurofibromatosis, benign
tumors in Kenny’s nervous
system. But after surgery and
six months, his body again went
numb, confirming both diag-
noses. Even so, after consulting
with his doctor, he began riding
again, “slowly at first, but with
dreams of returning to the roads
I once traveled.” And for the
last 20 years, he did live out his
dream, clocking over 10,000
miles for the cause.
Chloe Toussaint is based in Los
Angeles, Calif.
