The doors to the Oval Office were opened for him and Fred Kelley walked in to receive the national “Community Involvement Award” from President George W. Bush. It had been a long trip from Monroeville to the White House, but distances mean little to Kelley. He’s run upwards of 3,000 miles and biked 5,000 more since a heart attack almost took his life eight years ago.
Weighing more than 300 pounds at the age of 44, Kelley’s heart failed March 23, 2000, after four of his coronary arteries became blocked. But in a series of events he calls miraculous, Kelley collapsed in front of Monroe County Hospital in Monroeville. He was soon on the operating table for quadruple bypass surgery. Doctors later told him he would not have survived had he been at home or work.
Convinced God was giving him another chance at life, Kelley changed his lifestyle, intent on helping others avoid the unhealthy pitfalls of his own. He began to walk, and then run, despite only having half of his normal heart function. After four years, he had lost more than 100 pounds which he has kept off to this day.
Hardship came again in 2004, however, when his wife Joyce died from complications from diabetes. Rather than doubt, though, Kelley pressed on, unsure why providence had taken his wife, but determined to make the most of God’s decision to keep him alive.
In that same year, hoping to raise money for the American Cancer Society, he biked 92 miles from Monroeville to Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile. A year later, he did it again with several volunteers, this time biking to meet Alabama Governor Bob Riley at the Statehouse in Montgomery.
“We biked all the way,” Kelly said. “We didn’t take the stairs when we got there either. We biked to the front door.”
Originally, Kelley had hoped to raise $1,000, but to date, the now-established awareness campaign, “Peddlin’ for a Cure,” has raised more than $500,000 for the American Cancer Society. Several hundred bikers now join him each year in the campaign that earned Kelley national recognition and the community involvement award from President Bush in November 2007.
“I’ve never seen someone with such tenacity,” said Wayne McMillian, pastor of Kelley’s home church, Mexia Baptist, in Bethlehem Baptist Association. “He’s encouraged so many people. And he knows how bad his heart is and that he might not have much time, but he never slows down.”
Together with his daughter Kim, Kelley now spends most weekends traveling among churches and various communities in Alabama, telling his story and encouraging people to “take care of God’s temple.”
“He used to run by himself, but now he’s got so many other people exercising,” Kim said. “It’s amazing to see the impact his testimony has had on this community.”
Currently, Kelley is on the waiting list for a heart transplant. In the summer of 2007, doctors told him his heart was worsening, and a transplant was needed soon. It’s an opportunity Kelley recognizes is far from guaranteed, but like a lot of things in his renewed life, he doesn’t think about it much.
“That’s a door God will have to open,” Kelley said, an analogy he uses wherever he speaks.
“I like the example of the Oval Office. I couldn’t open the doors to the Oval Office. That’s a door that must be opened for you,” he said. “Likewise, God will open doors that are supposed to be open, and close the ones that are supposed to be closed.”
“And my story is about doors that no man could have opened.”
For more information about Kelley, call 251-743-4242.
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