Stars Who've Triumphed Over Life's Obstacles

Jet, Dec 11, 2000

Life is often filled with obstacles and challenges, but the key to living a quality life is to triumph over them. With wisdom, patience and courage, some of today's stars have prevailed over setbacks and have come back bigger and better than ever.

Martin Lawrence is one star who has hurdled a major roadblock in his life. Last year he nearly died from heat stroke after he went jogging with too many clothes on. The actor was rushed to an emergency room comatose with a body temperature slightly over 107 degrees. He required life support when he arrived at the hospital. Doctors feared he might have to undergo kidney dialysis, but that wasn't necessary. Lawrence fought back. His faster-than-expected recovery earned him the nickname the "miracle man" by the staff at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Los Angeles. Within a few months he recovered and was well enough to complete the filming for Big Momma's House, which went on to score big at the box office.

"Touched By An Angel" star Della Reese knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles. Twice she was at death's doorstep and twice she made it take a backseat. In the late 1960s Reese walked through a glass door. She lost so much blood--seven pints--that doctors didn't think they would be able to put enough blood back into her. The accident required her to have 1,000 stitches and doctors were uncertain if she'd be able to walk again. Things worked out, and within months she was up and about. But nearly two decades later, tragedy struck Reese again when she fainted on the set of the "Tonight Show" during a taping. An aneurysm in her brain had burst. Her family was told that she would be dead by morning. But once again, Reese proved the doctors wrong. She lived to undergo two brain operations within a week apart to correct other aneurysms that were found. The ordained minister, who says "angels" were along the way watching over her, pulled through and within 10 days after the last operation she was doing a radio commercial!

Emmy Award-winning talk show host Montel Williams raised the awareness of multiple sclerosis (MS) when he was diagnosed with it last year. And the first thing he assured his audience was that he was going to be just fine. "The disease isn't going to stop me," he said. The next thing he did was to start a fund to find a cure for the crippling disease. "MS picked the wrong person. I have a big mouth, and I'm going to continue flapping it until there's a cure!" he wrote in his inspirational new book, Life Lessons and Reflections, in which he pledged 100 percent of his royalties from the book to the fight against MS. This year he was awarded the first-ever Man of Courage award during the Race To Erase MS event where a grand total of $2.5 million was raised that night to fight MS.

Damon Wayans knows how to tickle an audience's funny bone. He also knows how to move beyond life's adversities. Born with a club foot, Wayans had the birth defect surgically corrected by the time he was 2 years old. He had to wear orthopedic shoes and a brace that went up to his knee. He told The Boston Herald, "As a kid I was quiet, especially with the shoe on ... Then as soon as I got the shoe off, I went crazy--I could be like everybody else. I discovered if I was funny, [other kids would] embrace me and not look down on my shoe. That became my thing. Be funny and be loved by everybody." He's doing just that today as a popular comedian and actor. A few years ago he even created an animated kids show, "Waynehead," about a little boy with a club foot who wore a big brown shoe and brace that was based on his life as a child.

T-Boz of the group TLC and hip-hop star Prodigy of the group Mobb Deep both suffer from sickle cell anemia, but that hasn't deterred them from prospering as performers.

T-Boz, a national spokesperson for the National Sickle Cell Disease Association, doesn't stress over having the disease she was born with because it has taught her to value life, she says. And in fact, it was teasing from kids as a youngster that inspired her to pen TLC's hit song Unpretty. She once admitted that the disease keeps her in "excruciating pain," but it couldn't keep her from starting a family. Recently she married rapper Mack 10 and the two became parents when she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Chase Rolison. Just recently she performed on the song My Getaway for the Rugrats in Paris movie.

Prodigy also suffers from sickle cell and has learned to cope with it as he continues his rap career. "I don't overexert myself. I get lots of rest. I take care of my body by watching the food I put in it. I don't eat meat or use drugs or alcohol." The hip-hop performer, who recently started a film and record company, Infamous, is winning fame with his solo debut CD HNIC, featuring the song Keep It Thorough and You Can Never Feel My Pain, which addresses his battle with the disease.

San Antonio Spurs forward Sean Elliott recently rebounded from one of life's obstacles. Last year the basketball star had to undergo a kidney transplant. His brother, Noel, donated his kidney to save the life of his famous brother. The operation was a success, but doctors were unsure if Elliott would be able to resume playing professional basketball. The resilient Elliott silenced all the naysayers when he returned to the court in uniform as a starter. He is playing close to the same, if not identical, on-the-ball defense as he played for 11 years in the league. "I'm surprised as everybody else, really. I didn't think I'd feel this way, but I do. I feel great," he told the Washington Post.