United Airlines NYC Half: Acute leukemia survivor Peter Kirk to run 250th half marathon, with goal of 1,000 [Video]

NEW YORK (WABC) — Peter Kirk is no stranger to going the distance.

Running the 2024 United Airlines NYC Half will be quite normal for him, considering he runs two half marathons almost every week.

But four years ago, it was a very different story.

“Luckily at this point, it was three and a half years ago, but easily the scariest thing that ever happened to me,” Kirk said. “But, one week I started throwing up and it was a little unusual but it wasn’t just once it was like once or twice a day, so I went to see my hematologist.”

It was news he didn’t expect.

“When the test results came back I was sitting there in the chair and he was like, ‘Peter, this can’t be right,'” He said. “My breathing started going down because not only did I have acute leukemia I also had double lung pneumonia.”

Hospitalized at the peak of the COVID pandemic and immunocompromised, Kirk’s health went downhill quickly.

“They put me …