Columnist Susan Snyder: Disorder won’t break his spirit

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 4:20 a.m.

Big honkin' airplanes for United Parcel Service. Long trips with little sleep and stops in 10 countries were typical, but O'Grady loved to fly.

His passion for flight came crashing down in April 2000 when he suffered his first grand mal seizure. He had been awake 36 straight hours and stopped off for some breakfast on the way home.

"I sat down to eat, and that's the last thing I remember," O'Grady, 44, says.

He awoke in a hospital room to a diagnosis that forever changed his life. Doctors said his driving and flying days were over. So he ditched the cars, the big house and the five hot air balloons.

"I had no choice but to go out and buy a bike," O'Grady said.

He now pedals his reclining, recumbent two-wheeler called a Bike E across the country to educate people about epilepsy. On Wednesday O'Grady rolled up to the MGM Grand, completing a monthlong, 2,453-mile ride from Dayton, Ohio, to attend the Epilepsy Foundation's national convention in Las Vegas.

"It's very empowering for people because it tells the world that people with epilepsy can do things," said Janine Poppa, spokeswoman of the foundation's Western Ohio chapter.

(Nevada doesn't have a chapter. Nevadans can seek assistance from the national office, (800) 332-1000.)

O'Grady averaged a staggering 120 miles a day, pulling 100 pounds of gear on a trailer attached to his rear wheel. He rode without a support crew, crossing portions of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. He stopped at schools along the way to talk with kids about epilepsy.

His progress was tracked at johnscharityride.joesacher.com. But O'Grady kept a different log. He recalls the little boy in the Tupelo, Miss., school who has epilepsy and uses a walker.

"This 8-year-old kid looked at me like I was Mickey Mantle or someone. He could barely raise his hand to say thank you," O'Grady said.

There was a Cincinnati couple whose 2-year-old daughter's 850 daily seizures had been reduced to 175 with medication. The tot's father called O'Grady after O'Grady rode through town, to say the child moved her legs for the first time -- as if she were pedaling.

There's the lady in a convertible in Paris, Texas, who thanked him because she has epilepsy; the hotel owner in Wikieup, Ariz., who has epilepsy and the restaurant owner up the road from there whose father-in-law has it.

All were were hesitant to talk about their disorder until O'Grady rolled into their towns.

O'Grady arrived in Henderson Tuesday night. He had walked four miles to Hoover Dam because his front tire exploded from the heat generated by his brakes during the descent. He pedaled the last 20 miles to the MGM Wednesday escorted by Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club members Jim Smallridge, Trev Brady, Barry Vinik and me.

"It's called a silent disease because people don't want to talk about it," Poppa said as her group welcomed O'Grady with balloons and hugs. "John gives a voice to those silent faces."

O'Grady will never pilot another airplane.

But he soars for thousands with angels' wings.

And some pretty strong legs.