Editor's note: Following is the last in a two-part series about a 10th Mountain Division (LI) Soldier who established a foundation in memory of his son. To read part one, visit www.drum.army.mil and click on the Aug. 21 issue of The Mountaineer Online.
FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- The days that followed Beydn Swink's death passed in a blur, according to his father, Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Swink.
"For the first week and a half, I didn't do much," he recalled. "I was staying at my mother-in-law's house in North Carolina, and I would just sleep all day."
Before his last deployment, Swink had signed up to participate in a Spartan Race -- an obstacle-packed fitness challenge -- in Georgia. Beydn had planned to run the race alongside his father.
As race day approached, several of Swink's friends sent him Facebook messages encouraging him to attend.
"I thought about going, but I didn't feel prepared -- mentally or physically," he said. "I blew off the first day of the race, but at 3 a.m. on the second (and final) morning of the race, I decided to just go," Swink said.
Spartan Race staff members met Swink when he arrived, and some of them even ran the race alongside him as he navigated the obstacle course. At the finish line, they presented him with a season pass and T-shirts for his other children.
"I think that was my first step in healing," Swink said. "I realized that I needed to start doing things. That was when we really got serious and started the For Beydn Foundation."
Swink began researching doctors working with pediatric cancer, specifically those who focused on developing treatments for invasive fungal infections.
Through his research, he found Dr. William Steinbach, who works at Duke University Medical Center and serves as the director of the International Pediatric Fungal Network (www.ipfn.org), an organization dedicated to improving the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of pediatric patients with invasive fungal infections.
Swink emailed Steinbach and received a phone call from the doctor within hours. He explained that he was in the process of starting a foundation, and that he was looking to donate money to help support research for invasive fungal infections. The two arranged to meet in person.
On May 9, the day that Beydn would have turned 11, Swink and his Family made an emotional trip to the Children's Hospital of Atlanta. In memory of Beydn, they presented the hospital with a check along with donations of toys and books for the children. They also donated snacks and gift certificates for the hospital cafeteria for the parents using the Pediatric Intensive Care waiting room, and hats for oncology patients who had lost their hair.
The very next day, Swink and his Family made the trip to Durham, N.C., to meet with Steinbach.
Steinbach said that he was struck by the strength of the Swink Family.
"This is a man who has served several (combat) tours, and he is used to fighting," Steinbach said. "These are parents that didn't give up and they were just up against insurmountable odds.'"
Steinbach said that, often, people do not know what an invasive fungal infection is. He said that they often think of toenail fungus, not of a widespread invasive fungal infection that wreaks havoc on the bodies of patients whose immune systems are lowered.
"The problem is that in the ever-growing population of patients who have a lower immune system -- we're treating more cancers than we ever could before, we're transplanting more organs than we ever could before -- people are on immune suppressants for everything from bad asthma to Crohn's disease to eczema. All of a sudden, we are seeing more of these infections, and the invasive fungal infections are causing more mortality."
The invasive fungal infection that Beydn contracted is especially difficult to diagnose and treat, Steinbach added.
"Scedosporium is a mold infection," he said. "It's not the most common one, but it is one of the more resistant ones on the planet. So it's quite difficult to treat."
Steinbach and his colleagues within the IPFN are working to improve methods and techniques for diagnosing, researching and treating invasive fungal infections in children. It is the only such organization that exists.
Swink decided that the For Beydn Foundation would begin donating funds to the IPFN to help support their research.
"What they are doing is taking an awful experience in life and saying 'how can we benefit others?'"
Steinbach said. "As I told (Sgt. 1st Class) Swink, the world is often divided into two groups of people: the people who, when the building is burning down, are running away, and the people who are running back into the building to get everyone else. He's the latter; I figured that out about two minutes after meeting him."
In addition to spending countless hours working to plan fund raising events for the For Beydn Foundation, Swink also began preparing for his next physical fitness challenge -- the Peak Death Race.
The Peak Death Race was created by two ultra-athletes, Joe Desena and Andy Weinberg, as a way for athletes to test themselves both mentally and physically.
The Death Races take place in Pittsfield, Vt., and each race consists of different challenges, from climbing mountains, to swimming in the nearby river, to creating clothing and shelter from found objects and the odd assortment of items that each participant is required to bring to the challenge.
Swink made his first attempt at completing the challenge in June 2012.
"I went and the race was brutal," he said. "I was in day two and they told me 'you're disqualified.' They said I had missed a cut-off."
Swink drove home disappointed. As he reflected on the race later, something clicked in his mind.
"I remembered them telling us 'we'll give you a thousand reasons to quit,'" he said. "I fell for it. We had run up a mountain carrying kayaks over our heads, chopped firewood, and covered 60 or 70 miles of ground in the first 24 hours. When they told me I was disqualified, it was to see what I would do. It took me a while to realize it, but I quit."
Swink returned to compete in the team challenge that fall.
"We were doing pretty well, but one of my team members broke a bone in his foot," he said.
So, Swink ventured back for the winter race.
"There were quite a few of us left in the race when they had us get into the Tweed River," he recalled. "People started quitting because they were getting cold."
The event staff would have participants get out of the water and complete another challenge, then re-enter the river to tread water again. One of Swink's friends noticed that he was exhibiting signs of hypothermia.
"He told me not to get back into the water," Swink said. "I did, and I woke up in the warming tent."
Unshaken, Swink ventured to Pittsfield this June to begin his fourth Peak Death Race attempt.
Right from the start, this summer's race was extremely challenging.
"The first task was to run up these stone stairs that go all the way up Joe Mountain (named for race co-founder Joe Desena)," Swink said.
As the participants lined up to begin, Michelle Roy, one of the runners, presented Swink with a special gift.
In 2013, Roy started a nonprofit organization called the Stone Stairs Project. She received permission to create a memorial on the stairs for loved ones fighting cancer and for those who had lost their battle to the disease.
"People send me the names of their loved ones, and I design a stone with their name on it and place it along the stairway," Roy said. "This summer, I made a stone for Josh and Annie's son. There were pictures of some of his favorite things painted on it."
Swink asked Roy if he could place the rock himself.
"I waited for everyone else to start the race -- there were over 300 people. I placed the rock and stood there for a minute, thinking about Beydn before I started up the mountain."
Several times over the course of the next 24 hours, Swink said he thought about dropping out of the race.
"I concentrated on taking one step at a time for Beydn," he said. "Rather than thinking about the whole race, I would show up at one task and think about it before I started."
Swink realized that many of the tasks assigned to the participants were intentionally vague, allowing competitors to come up with creative ways of accomplishing them. He credits his training in the Army for helping him to focus on the mission at hand.
"The training I've received in the Army really helped," he said. "I realized I had been over thinking things. When I concentrated on doing one mission at a time and thought about the standard, I was able to do it."
Participants were 50 hours into the race when the staff gathered them at the base of the mountain. There, they were informed that there were still 16 hours remaining in the challenge. Each participant had to choose a vehicle to board -- a large tour bus or a small school bus, Swink recalled.
"A lot of people chose the school bus," he said. "They thought that they probably wouldn't be going as far. I chose the tour bus, thinking at least I'd get to sit down for a little while."
The tour bus, holding 26 participants, drove to New York City. There, they were required to complete several tasks that led them all over the city. All 26 individuals moved as a group as they navigated subways and busy city streets.
Meanwhile, the group that had taken the school bus drove six miles and then returned to the farm. The participants on this bus then spent the remainder of the race climbing up and down the mountain.
"When we got back to the bus, they told us the people in Vermont were done," Swink said. "They told us that we didn't do as much work, so none of us (on the tour bus) would get a skull (the trophy provided to finishers)."
Then the staff conceded that they would give one person a skull, provided that the entire group agreed on who should receive it.
Roy suggested that they give it to Swink in honor of his son, but the group ultimately decided not to choose one recipient.
"We all agreed that we all got a skull or no one did," he said.
Hours later, upon arriving back at the race site, Swink and the rest of the group realized that this had been a test, and they all had passed. Each of them received a skull. More than 66 hours after the race began, Swink finished.
"For me, this race was all about personal exploration," Swink said. "What I took away from it is that everyone gets to make a choice. You have to take what comes with that choice and keep moving."
Swink said he plans to participate in more Peak Death Races in the future, because they help him to keep in shape mentally and physically and because he likes the challenge.
Even if he never finishes another race, Swink said he will always be proud to have finished this particular one.
"In a race like this, you have a lot of time to think," he said. "I thought about Beydn all 60-plus hours, and I finished."
Swink now serves at the Light Fighters Academy, where he is training to become an urban combat instructor. He said that knowing he has a job to do is part of what helps him to get through.
Sgt. 1st Class Ashley Hess, senior marksmanship instructor for the Light Fighters Academy and Swink's supervisor, said that despite the challenges Swink has faced this year, he has put forth a dedicated effort since he first arrived at the academy in June.
"He jumped on board and immediately began learning our techniques," Hess said. "Urban combat is a very demanding environment both mentally and physically. I fully expect him to excel in this role."
Swink admits that there are still days when the pain of losing his son feels very fresh and it is hard to keep moving forward. He said that his Family gives him the strength to carry on.
"When you get caught up in the stress of everyday life, you have to put things in perspective," he said. "I'm still lucky. I'm still here and my other kids are healthy. I am grateful for that, and I always tell people -- hug your kids more, appreciate life more."
To read more about Beydn's story, visit the For Beydn Foundation's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/forbeydn.
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