About eight years ago Vaughn Ripley entered his first marathon because of a random sign he saw while riding the Metro, Washington D.C.’s subway system. It was New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon and promoted running the race to raise money for AIDS. Thirty-eight years old at the time, the most Ripley had ever run was a couple of miles.

“I trained with the Walt Whitman clinic,” he said. “They offered a six month training that started me out running two miles and ended with my 26.2 mile race.”

An athlete most of his life, getting into the groove of running was not too difficult.

He completed the race in 4 hours and 35 minutes and raised $3,500 for AIDS care giving and research.

But this is not a story about a man who ran his first marathon. This is a story about a man who has survived hemophilia, a rare bleeding disorder where the blood has extreme difficulty clotting, Hepatitis C and HIV.

Ripley is one of the longest living HIV+ survivors in the world.

THE DIAGNOSIS

The diagnosis came on January 3, 1987 when Ripley was 19 years old. The doctor told him he only had a few years to live.

Anger, fear and depression were among the first few thoughts. I was also so shocked and had trouble believing it. It was fairly surreal,” he said remembering that day.

Born with Hemophilia, doctors say Ripley became infected from contaminated blood products. On top of that, he also caught Hepatitis C.

Facing three life threatening diseases, he felt like an outcast. He couldn’t go to his local pool to swim and many people judged him because there was very little education about the virus. Ripley turned to drugs and drinking. He was addicted for years.

Eventually, he started thinking about suicide.

“I spent more than an hour screaming and crying at God,” he said. “I threatened him and gave him an ultimatum of showing himself to me or I would kill myself. I fell asleep with the intention of committing suicide the next day.”

Ripley believes divine intervention stepped in. The next day a childhood friend from church knocked on his door and said something similar to, “I’m not sure why I had come, but I had a strong urge to find you.”

“That was an epiphany for me,” said Ripley. “I knew that some form of Supreme Being was responding to my pleas.”

He knew it would take time to recover, but time was on his side. Ripley lived well past the two years his doctors predicted his early death.

**

Now at 44-years-old, he is still fighting to survive. However, it comes naturally to Ripley who also fought back against doctors, family and friends who told him, “You can’t do that.”

While taking an excessive amount of medication to combat the diseases, Ripley held onto his love for extreme sports. Even as a child with Hemophilia, he would ride his bike and skateboard; actions that could be deadly if he fell. As an adult the range of sports grew to mountaineering and rock climbing, he even climbed Mount Rainier in Washington.

Standing at about six feet tall with an athletic build, Ripley says he’s in the best shape of his life. As a runner, he tackles the hills near his home in Brunswick, Maryland. “I love training there, because it is extremely hilly and I dig hill training.”

After completing the New Orleans Marathon, he became a certified personal trainer.

The next goal: to complete 100 or more triathlon events. A full race is 2 1/2-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a marathon at the end, which is 26.2 miles. This includes completing the Kona, Hawaii Ironman triathlon.

“I am on track for doing Kona in 2017,” he said. “My future goals are all based on my life philosophy: “Fit for Life!”

So far, he only has two under his belt which include mini sprints or super-sprint races which are about a quarter of a mile in the swim, six miles in the bike and about a mile to three miles in the run.

The photos from his races show a man healthier than most people. Ripley says he feels great most days and it has helped with his battle against the diseases.

Along with being careful, working out has made him stronger and more flexible, so he has a better hand on the problems with hemophilia. The Hepatitis C is now gone, thanks to a year long struggle with medication.

But he still tackles the HIV virus. There are many side effects from his “drug cocktail.” In his blog “HIV Longevity: Still Fighting,” he writes about some of them including: diarrhea, peripheral neuropathy (which is extreme pain where something like a stubbing his toe would bring him to his knees), depression and loss of fat. He writes, “It is acceptable when you consider the fact that my other option is to die a slow and painful death.” He adds, “I live in fear every time I get a common cold or flu.”

FAMILY LIFE

Ripley is now far from his days of feeling like an outcast. He married, Kristine, a woman he knew from when he was a teenager.

“I was well read on it [HIV} and I wasn't super nervous about the disease," she says. "I don't know why, it was always meant to be I think."

They also have two children, Trinity and Xander.

For many people, it may come as a surprise considering his HIV diagnosis. But with the help of modern medicine…and faith…the couple conceived through Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in-vitro fertilization. According to hemaware.org, ICSI in-vitro fertilization is when, “…a doctor takes a single sperm and inserts it into an egg in the lab. Often, doctors will create several embryos this way and then implant the fertilized embryos into a woman’s uterus.”

CHILVARY AND KAIZEN

It’s a certain frame of mind that Ripley believes helped him survive and live. There are many things he believes in, but the first two that come to mind: chivalry and kaizen.

“I think that chivalry explains itself,” he said. “[And} Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy in which a person works each-and-every day trying to improve themselves. I spend a few moments at the end of each day and ask myself what I did today to make myself a better person. Each day I strive to learn and build upon my knowledge.”

With a long list of accomplishments in his business, his family, his sports and his health, Ripley has become an inspiration to almost everyone who learns his story.

But for Ripley, just being able “to live” is amazing in itself.

To Learn more about Ripley’s story, purchase his book: Survivor: One Man’s Battle with HIV, Hemophilia and Hepatitis C

About The Author: Ashley is an anchor/reporter/producer at WHAG-TV, an NBC affiliate in Hagerstown, Maryland. She majored in Journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and started her career as a producer at the KHNL (now Hawaii News Now) in Honolulu. She ran everything from the 60-meter to the 800-meter and placed eighth at the 2007 WAC Championships in the 800m. She is now pursuring her dream as a broadcast journalist and still enjoys running, surfing and hiking.

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