The heartbreaking reason why this man is running marathons with a 55-lb fridge strapped to his back |
Among the thousands of runners participating in this year’s London Marathon, one figure stood out in a way that was impossible to ignore. As 30-year-old Jordan Adams completed the race with a 25-kilogram (55-pound) fridge secured to his back, heads turned at every mile.
Yes, it was unusual, but the heartbreaking reason behind it gave the moment a depth that stayed with those who witnessed it.
Carrying more than weight
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Adams took on the challenge to bring attention to frontotemporal dementia, a condition that has shaped his family’s life for years. His mother, Geraldine, was diagnosed in her 40s when Adams was a teen, and died after living with the illness for six years. Since then, multiple relatives have also been lost.
He and his brother Cian later learned they both carry the same genetic mutation.
“I am a carrier. I have a 99.9% chance of getting familial FTD. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when,” Adams told the BBC, according to the Bristol Post. “And I just want do as much as I can in the time that I have to help those living with dementia, those impacted by it, so that I leave this world, hopefully in a better place when dementia does take my life.”
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The fridge was never about pure spectacle. It was meant to represent something less visible but viscerally felt nonetheless.
“Because that’s what it feels like sometimes – like you’re carrying something heavy that no one else can see. I’m doing this to make dementia visible,” Adams said, according to LAD Bible. “But more than that… to show you that whatever you’re carrying, you don’t have to carry it alone.”
A moment shared with thousands
Running a marathon under normal circumstances demands months of preparation. Doing so with added weight required an even more careful approach, from building strength gradually to repairing equipment when it failed during training.
Still, it was the atmosphere on race day that left the strongest impression. Cheers from the crowd helped carry him through the most difficult stretches, turning an intensely personal mission into something shared by many.
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“Honestly, it felt like the whole of London was with me and I’ve never experienced anything like that. I probably never will [again] in my life,” Adams recalled.
The finish line in London marked the start of another challenge. Within hours, Adams traveled to begin a 32-day run across Ireland, completing a marathon in each county alongside his brother.
Beyond raising awareness, Adams shared that the “FTD Brothers” had an additional goal: “to try and raise a million pounds before we die of dementia.” This money would go toward research and provide support for families affected by the illness.
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“We’re on a mission because we have a clock kind of ticking against us, and we want to make as much of a difference in the next 10, 15 years that we have and the time that we have left,” Adams said.
Choosing how to move forward
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Living with that knowledge hasn’t been easy. Adams has spoken openly online about the emotional toll of his diagnosis, including periods of depression and uncertainty about the future. What helped him through it most was the encouragement he received from those around him. He now aims to provide that kind of hope to others facing similar realities.
“Losing my mum the way I did changed everything,” he told the Irish Examiner. “Now being diagnosed myself, I had a choice and I chose to do something that shows life doesn’t stop here.”
How to help the mission
Donations to the FTD Brothers’ GoFundMe have already climbed rapidly as more people hear their story.
If you want to help, you can donate directly to the FTD Brothers’ GoFundMe page here. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports dementia research and resources for families facing the same diagnosis.
A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing.
Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold.
A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen.
Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing.
Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth.
Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:
Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis
Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community
Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or in one of 60 countries where we work around the globe
Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door
Shop or donate at your local Habitat ReStore
Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone.
Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today.
Death: It’s hard to talk about, and sadly, even harder to avoid. That’s why everyone wants to know how long they will live and there are many indicators that can show whether someone is thriving or on the decline. But scientists have yet to develop a magic formula to determine exactly how long someone should expect to live. Which, let’s be real, is probably a good thing. Knowing exactly how much time you have left to enjoy your life could cause a lot of anxiety, to say the very least.
NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar appeared on the TODAY show on March 8, 2023, to demonstrate a surprisingly simple test that may predict how long someone aged 51 to 80 has to live. The test is called the sit to stand test, also known as the sit-rising test or SRT, and it takes less than a minute to perform.
How to take the sit to stand test
The test is pretty simple. Go from standing to sitting cross-legged, and then go back to standing without using any parts of your body besides your legs and core to help you get up and down. The test measures multiple longevity factors, including heart health, balance, agility, core and leg strength and flexibility.
You begin the test with a score of 10 and subtract points on your way up and down for doing the following:
Hand used for support: -1 point
Knee used for support: -1 point
Forearm used for support: -1 point
One hand on knee or thigh: -1 point
Side of leg used for support: -1 point
Two studies, 13 years apart, came to the same conclusion
A 2012 study published by the European Society of Cardiology found a correlation between the SRT score and how long people live. A follow-up study published in 2025 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology further confirmed the SRT as a strong predictor of both natural and cardiovascular causes of death, reinforcing the original findings.
The study was conducted on 2002 people, 68% of whom were men, who performed the SRT test and were followed by researchers in the coming years. The study found that “Musculoskeletal fitness, as assessed by SRT, was a significant predictor of mortality in 51–80-year-old subjects.”
Those who scored in the lowest range, 0 to 3, had up to a 6 times greater chance of dying than those in the highest scores (8 to 10). About 40% of those in the 0 to 3 range died within 11 years of the study.
What does your score actually mean?
Azar distilled the study on TODAY saying: “The study found that the lower the score, you were seven times more likely to die in the next six years.”
“Eight points or higher is what you want,” Azar said. “As we get older, we spend time talking cardiovascular health and aerobic fitness, but balance, flexibility and agility are also really important,” she stressed. A score of eight or nine means you’re allowed to roll forward onto your knees and then rise, which a lot of people will find more comfortable. If you can rise that way, you’re still in a pretty good spot health wise.
One should note that the people who scored lowest on the test were the oldest, giving them a naturally elevated risk of death.
Dr. Greg Hartley, Board Certified Geriatric Clinical Specialist and associate professor at the University of Miami, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that we should take the study with a grain of salt. “Frailty, strength, muscle mass, physical performance: those things are all correlated to mortality, but I would caution everybody that correlation doesn’t mean causation,” he said.
And of course, the test doesn’t take into account injuries or disabilities that may make doing the test impossible. But one of the study’s authors says that the study is a call to take our mobility seriously.
“The more active we are the better we can accommodate stressors, the more likely we are to handle something bad that happens down the road,” Dr. Claudio Gil Araujo, told USA Today.
What to do if your score is low
What should you do if you can’t manage a good score on the SRT? First of all, don’t panic! It’s never too late to improve your overall health, fitness, and strength, so regular exercise is a........