PHOENIX – An Arizona woman, Betsy Mueller, faced a challenging diagnosis a few years ago. She promised it wouldn’t stop her, and now she has proof it didn’t.

The backstory:

Before she took off from Santa Monica, California, Mueller, an Arizona native, spoke to FOX 10, sharing the incredible challenge she was about to undertake.

“MS is not a death sentence,” Mueller said.

That was the clear message from the runner who received a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2021.

“I started having numbing on the left side of my face, left side of my head, the inside of my mouth,” Mueller said.

After initially running away from the diagnosis, she learned to run with it.

“I’m just going to go out there and live life and don’t think this disease is holding me back, just keep moving forward and doing the things I want to do,” Mueller said.

Her family told FOX 10 in the spring that she would succeed at running across America.

“She has the grit to do it for sure,” Chris Mueller said.

Now, she’s back home, finished and accomplished.

‘My phone started saying severe storms are coming’

“I enjoyed just all the different scenery and how it would change along the run, going from California to Arizona, to New Mexico,” she said. “California, Arizona, we started March 9. By the time we got to New Mexico, Gallup, it was snowing and sleet,” she said.

Mueller ran onward to Oklahoma and Kansas, but Missouri was the most challenging.

“All of a sudden, my phone started saying severe storms are coming, and I’m like, ‘Oh OK,’ and I’m noticing bikers are going faster past me, so I’m like, ‘OK, I gotta run faster.’ I’m running, then it starts lightning, thundering, and then it’s raining, then it hails,” Mueller said.

A tornado siren went off, but she found safety. Undeterred, she laced up her sneakers again and carried on all the way to New York City, one step at a time.

Big picture view:

She also raised money for her nonprofit, Active with MS. They support people mentally and financially going through the disease, so everyone has an opportunity to find the strength she has.

Mueller learned a lot running across America, including the message of hope she can inspire in others.

“You don’t have to run across the country. You just have to take your own steps, whatever that looks like,” she said.

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