A woman who lost 200 pounds on a quest for personal health entered a 10K run but ended up needing a little help to finish the race -- courtesy of a police officer's helping hand.
Asia Ford, who at her heaviest weighed 474 pounds, embarked on her weight loss sojourn after her husband lost a limb to diabetes and she worried about what would happen to her children if her own health failed.
"That is when I woke up and I couldn't allow them to be on this Earth without my help and the only way I would be able to help them is if I helped myself first," she said.
After losing more than 200 pounds in two years, Ford decided to enter the annual Rodes City Run in Louisville.
She set a goal of finishing the 6.2 mile course come what may.
She did well until the four-mile mark, when she started having trouble breathing.
Paramedics checked her over, but she was adamant in her desire to finish.
That's when Lousville Police Lt. Aubrey Gregory, who was passing in his patrol car, decided to get involved.
"The EMS guys got out to check on her and she said I'm not stopping, I'm not stopping," Gregory said, "so I said I'm not going to let her stop we're going to do this together. So I got out and I grabbed her hand. I had to meet this inspirational woman."
He asked Ford if she wanted to stop, and when Ford said she wanted to finish the course, Gregory, along with Ford's son Terence, walked hand in hand until they reached the finish line.
Along the way Gregory talked with Ford and her son about his own mother's struggle with diabetes.
"He was like my angel," said Ford. "He came at the moment I really needed him."
Ford finished the race - in last place, but she finished.
"Your heart starts to fill up, you get those goose bumps and tingles all over your body," Gregory said. "When I watched her approach and I started to hear people scream and I let her go right there before the end and to see her raise her hands, there aren't words to express the way I felt seeing her be successful."
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer posted photos of Ford crossing the finish line with Gregory and her son, photos that quickly went viral.
