IBX Broad Street Run: Delco runner shares comeback story after suffering brain aneurysm

HAVERTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Every Saturday morning, they run the roads of Havertown together.

The group is called Run Strong. It's comprised of about 60 members - most of them women.

"We hold each other accountable, to show up and to run. It's an amazing group of people," said JoAnn Meyer, of Havertown.

SEE ALSO: IBX Broad Street Run: Avid racer shares passion while inviting others to 'run strong'

Their leader of the past 17 years is Meyer, an avid runner, who wanted to empower other women to take up the sport she loves.

But her life changed in the fall of 2019.

"I started getting headaches. They were mild, allergies, change of season, wasn't really too concerned about it. But I had this headache that wouldn't really go away," she recalled.

That November, in the midst of training for the Philadelphia Half Marathon, Meyer ran a local 5k in Havertown.

"I collapsed about 20 feet from the finish line. I didn't finish the race. I collapsed, and I was rushed to Bryn Mawr Hospital, where a team of doctors and nurses and medical staff saved my life," she recalled.

Meyer had a brain aneurysm that had ruptured.

She was moved to Jefferson Hospital, where she was treated for three weeks.

"It was a long, slow road to recovery after that," she said.

But it was a marathon she didn't tackle alone. Fueled by the support of her family and friends, she made a full recovery.

"I had to start back at ground zero. So I just started walking slow walks. That became a little faster," Meyer said.

Within several months, Meyer was running again. And later that year, she looked for closure.

"It was the year anniversary of my brain aneurysm, and I told my husband I was going to go run the Dewey Decimal 5k course, which was the race that I was doing when the brain aneurysm happened that I did not finish. And he said to me, 'Why are you going to do that?' And I just looked at him and I said, 'Because I can.'"Meyer recalled.

That mindset has carried Meyer through every training run and race since. And it will once again this May when she toes the starting line of her 17th race on Broad Street with so many of her Run Strong members by her side.

6abc is the proud media partner of the Independence Blue Cross Broad Street Run, the largest 10-mile race in the country.

The race will be held on May 4. To learn more about the favorite Philadelphia tradition, click here.