I had mind surgical procedure in January, now I’m operating the NYC marathon

Leanna Scaglione — a former ballerina who accomplished a half-marathon in March, simply two months after getting mind surgical procedure — is now making ready to run within the NYC Marathon Sunday.

“That is my redemption lap,” the 32-year-old Higher East Sider informed The Publish.

Scaglione will deal with the 26.2-mile course lower than a 12 months after having a tumor faraway from her mind. The process left her deaf in her proper ear and with momentary facial paralysis. She couldn’t transfer the precise aspect of her face or smile, not to mention stroll from one aspect of her condominium to the opposite.

“That was the hardest surgical procedure I ever went by way of,” stated Scaglione, who works as a private assistant. “However I simply was continuously asking my physician, ‘Can I begin operating once more but?’”

Scaglione has been battling — and overcoming — critical well being points for years.

At 15, she bought an MRI for what she thought was a ballet harm. That’s when docs noticed that she had a “grapefruit-size tumor” in her decrease backbone. They recognized her with neurofibromatosis, an incurable genetic situation that causes tumors to develop all through the physique. 

Scaglione went by way of two surgical procedures to take away the tumor and was in a wheelchair for a 12 months. “I misplaced sensation in my proper leg, so I couldn’t stand on it,” she recalled. She was informed she would by no means dance once more. However that didn’t deter the teenager. 

She ultimately graduated to a walker and inside two years was transferring on her personal. 

“I used to be by no means going to let [my illness] outline how I used to be going to dwell my life,” Scaglione stated.  

She’s since had 13 tumors eliminated — alongside her backbone, alongside her wrists and most just lately in her mind. 

She took up operating in the course of the pandemic as a method to flee being caught inside.

“Like everybody else, I wanted air,” she stated. “At first I used to be afraid with the nerve harm in my proper leg … [but] subsequent factor I knew, I ran a mile. I used to be so happy with myself and so in shock and hyped-up that I used to be like, ‘I gotta do this once more!’” 

She now recurrently races to boost cash for the Youngsters’s Tumor Basis. 

Scaglione competed within the NYC Marathon final 12 months, however she needed to stroll a lot of it after a mind tumor rising on a essential nerve resulting in her proper ear grew so giant it disrupted her listening to and stability.

This previous January, docs eliminated the mind tumor and added an auditory brainstem implant to assist her with sound recognition.

Now, she’s aiming to run a speedy race on Sunday and end in beneath 4 hours. She’s already signed up for 3 marathons — London, Berlin and New York Metropolis — in 2025 as a nationwide ambassador for the Youngsters’s Tumor Basis.

“By doing these races, it’s a bodily manner for me to say, ‘I can do that. I get it. I tackled this. I can hold going,’” Scaglione stated. “The factor that I discovered essentially the most is that this analysis doesn’t have to regulate and outline our lives. It doesn’t imply our lives cease. We simply pivot.”