(Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on Salamanca native Bradley Poole, who intends to run 300 miles in three days to raise both money and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis. Today: The motivation for Poole, who has CF, to set an even loftier goal than the 266-mile, seven-day run he made last summer.)

ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. — Bradley Poole still vividly remembers the tears.

The Salamanca native had always known he had something, that there was a need to always be taking this pill and that medication, but it wasn’t until age 13 that the reality of having Cystic Fibrosis truly set in.

“That’s when I went (to the hospital) for the first time, and I remember crying and being scared when the doctors told me I had to go,” Poole recalled. “So that was kind of a wake up call. It was around that age that I started realizing how serious this disease really is.”

And it was around that age that he first began heading down the path he’s on today.

Twenty-one years later, living with CF, which causes degenerative damage to the lungs, has only become more arduous for Poole … as anyone with the same debilitating disease might attest.

Every three months, for two weeks at a time, he has to report to a clinic in Buffalo for treatment and checkups. There, he undergoes intense physiotherapy and is occasionally placed on a new drug, such as Trikafta, which, if nothing else, at least helps him put on the weight which might otherwise be difficult to do.

“I’ve got a vest I wear everyday,” he said. “It’s like a life jacket you put on; tubes hooked up to a machine and it shakes you to loosen up the mucus on the walls of the lungs. You do that four times a day and you do four different nebulizers throughout the day and it’s just helping break that stuff up.”

Poole does this in an effort to both prolong his life now and to keep his lungs in good enough shape for the day a cure might come. He does this knowing that despite the drastic improvement in life expectancy over the last half-century (from only a couple of years to potentially over 40), time promises to be a problem without that cure.

And that’s only part of what he’s endured along the way.

Poole, now 34, lost his father when he was young. He both developed and overcame a drinking problem as a result of the depression and anxiety that came with his diagnosis. He took custody of his nephew at age 23. He was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at age 28, which only exasperated his despair.

“Just a bunch of different stuff that wouldn’t happen to a lot of people this early in life,” he noted.

That’s what drove him — and pushed him to succeed — in what he embarked upon last summer. And that’s what’s calling him to try to top what most might have viewed as an unsurpassable feat this June.

A year ago, Poole ran an incredible 266 miles in one week, or roughly 38 miles a day, through every town in Cattaraugus County to raise both money and awareness for CF, a story that was chronicled both locally and nationally. This year, his goal is even more ambitious: to run 300 miles in three days.

Crazy? Perhaps a little. Even he’s doubted, at times, the likelihood of accomplishing something so bold since beginning his training over the winter.

Last July, he ran those 266 miles, with friends, family and total strangers at his side, on the hottest week of the year, with the pavement touching well over 100 degrees. He started to develop nasty shin splints on Day 3, experiencing shooting pains — from his legs up to his hips — every time his feet hit the ground. His right leg, from the shin to his foot, swelled up.

His feet blistered. His toenails fell off. He had body cramps all over.

Throughout it, however, Poole reminded himself of why he was doing it. He remembered: given his experiences, he has an extra gear that few others will ever possess. And that’s his motivation in striving for this: what essentially amounts to 11.5 marathons in 72 hours.

“If I can get through that stuff, I just know that I can definitely get through this,” said Poole, who will make his run from June 9-11. “It’s going to be a little bit of pain, but it’s going to be worth raising all that money and awareness for CF every time I’m out there running.”

He added, “I think about everyone with CF that’s affected. I’ve known many people with CF who have passed away — 20s, teens, early 30s. So I’m out there running for them, I’m running for their families. And I’m just running to help us all so we can be cured at some point in our lifetime.”n

In the face of such profound challenges, Poole is doing well.

(“Knock on wood,” he added with a laugh).

He married in 2015 and now has a young daughter of his own. Even amid the economic difficulties brought on by the global pandemic, he managed to open his own gym, Warrior Fitness and Wellness, LLC, located on Park Avenue in Ellicottville, the membership for which is growing and consists of many people with stories similar to his own.

Poole understands that even if he remains “religious” with his treatment, the disease is going to continue to take its toll — the bacteria perpetually builds even as you fight against it, causing the lungs to lose their functionality.

But he has every intention of continuing his battle.

“The goal is to keep those lungs as healthy as you possibly can, so when a cure does come out, you’re just going to be able to take some type of pill or some kind of thing that’s going to help you out,” the 2005 Ellicottville graduate said. “But if your lungs are already damaged enough, the cure’s not going to work anyway, so the doctors really press on you to make sure you’re really sticking with your treatments.

“But eventually, say there is no cure and I just keep going, doing everything religiously. Eventually, it’s still going to catch up to me at some point.”

And so, in the meantime, no matter how lofty the goal, he’ll run.

He’ll run because despite having a life-threatening disease, he’s physically able to do it. He’ll run to prove to himself, and anyone else, just how far he’s come from those dark days of depression. And he’ll run with the hope that, in doing so, he can more directly help in finding a cure.

Last year, he was able to raise $65,000 with his week-long journey in July.

The goal this year? To simply beat that number.

“I’m hoping,” he recently said from inside his gym, which bears a wall with a block-lettering phrase that reads, “You are your only limit.”

“They’re continuously doing research for different drugs so … that’s why I do what I do. The bigger and crazier the event, I feel the more awareness it’s going to bring, to not only the run itself, but why I’m doing it.

“And that cure is close. So my goal is to just keep pressing forward, raising awareness, doing my part while I’m still healthy and can still do it.”

(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)

(Next week: The approach, training and course that Poole has set in attempting to tackle 300 miles in three days.)