Sometimes you need a friend to help push you forward, and two best friends are demonstrating that power of friendship, literally.
Reported on Today News, Patrick Gray and Justin Skeesuck are Idaho natives and have been best friends since childhood, creating plenty of memories over their 39 years of life together as they were born 24 hours apart. Their friendship has seen them through significant moments in life, including being the best men at each other’s weddings. They both still live blocks apart and have children that play together.
Unfortunately, Skeesuck developed an autoimmune disease that was triggered by a car accident, significantly changing the life he knew as a graphic designer, taking away his ability to walk, stand and use his upper body. After feeling depressed about his new life, Skeesuck decided to make the best of it and asked Gray to help him make new memories, along with a new career of helping disabled people be able to travel.
It was Skeesuck’s idea to hike the 500-mile trek El Camino de Santiago over the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain, with Gray enthusiastically replying, “I’ll push you.”
Just last month, the two best friends completed their 35 day adventure, which was not without challenges. Even when a wheel snapped off Skeesuck’s wheelchair the two best friends kept going as strangers stepped in to help them complete the epic journey.
“I had the choice in my life to go down this road — or I could choose to make the best of it and reshape my life where I could still be an effective husband and father, where I could still achieve things,” Skeesuck said to Today News. “I chose not to go down that dark road.”
You can watch Skeesuck and Gray’s incredible journey of faith, love, friendship and community in their documentary to be released in 2015, I’ll Push You, The courage and strength of these two best friends is truly inspiring. There is always a way to accomplish your dreams, sometimes you just need a friend to help you move mountains.
Learn more about Skeesuck and Gray on their website, illpushyou.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RddJIR5gu24
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