Follow Here To Purchase Open Heart Runner: searching for meaning after my heart stopped

Author: Gregory Marchand

Publisher: Agio Publishing House

ISBN: 9781897435-79-3

Forty year old father of three, Greg Marchand, had just completed the Harriers 8K race when he collapsed at the finish line. It was a life-changing moment. He stopped breathing and for twenty minutes was without a heartbeat.  CPR was administered.  Prayer was offered.  His breathing returned, but oxygen deprivation had resulted in severe anoxic brain injury.  The healthy, physically fit, active and experienced runner was comatose, in cardiac arrest and needed immediate by-pass surgery.  Hope was distant. Very distant. 

And then miraculously and against all odds, the author awoke from the coma and survived the surgery.  This is the story about his transformative year “of dying, living and healing.” 

Gore Vidal wrote that a memoir is ‘how one remembers one's own life.’  Open Heart Runner is not just a memoir, it is a powerful memoir: narrative in nature, reflective about the things and people that influenced the author, and of the author’s self-questioning about lessons-learned.  As well, it is an eye-opening account of the realities of brain injury and a gentle invitation to readers to recover the spiritual within their own lives as they consider their responses to a series of profound questions which the author creatively uses as sub-chapter headings: Why is it so hard to believe in miracles?  How do we know when it’s time to make changes in our lives?  Is there a difference between spirituality and religion?  Where do we find our own truths?  What do we do when we can’t find the answer? Why do we forget to take the time to watch the sun rise?  What does it take to live life to the fullest?   

The author’s intriguing writing style and spiritual quest are creatively woven into a rich tapestry reflective of Henry David Thoreau’s reminder that ‘What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.‘   

Open Heart Runner is an inspirational and moving example of excellence in memoir-writing that will deeply touch the heart and mind of its readers.

*Bio Provided By Amazon

Greg Marchand is a counselor, educator, father, and runner, Gregory Marchand has explored all of these callings in the dozens of magazine and newspaper articles he has published as a freelance writer. Open Heart Runner: searching for meaning after my heart stopped is his first book.