By Dr. Gilles LaMarche, D.C., Vice President of University Advancement, Life University

I was born on February 2, 1955, in Timmins, Ontario – a date etched in my consciousness not simply as a beginning, but as the foundation of a lifelong quest for meaning, vitality and service. My life’s path was sealed, though I did not yet know it, at age 12 when I first experienced the power of Chiropractic. That encounter planted the seed of purpose: to dedicate my life to helping others rediscover and optimize the healing power within themselves.

After high school, I went on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Toronto before earning my Doctor of Chiropractic from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 1979. But the true transformation of my professional life began two years earlier, in 1977, when I met the man who would become my mentor and inspiration – Dr. James W. Parker.

Under Dr. Parker’s guidance, I learned what it meant to build not just a practice, but a principled life. Over more than two decades, I was privileged to adjust 135-150 people every day, adjusting more than 750,000 people during my 25-year career. Each person who lay on my table was both student and teacher – each adjustment a reminder that the power that makes the body, heals the body.

A Diagnosis That Changed Everything

In the spring of 2003, after more than 24 years of practice, I was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension, my pulmonary pressure sitting at a staggering 57 mmHg, accompanied by cardiomegaly – an enlarged heart measuring 2.5 times normal size. The prognosis was grim: I was given less than 24 months to live. The medical alternative – a double lung and heart transplant – might buy me a few more years, but such an approach was entirely outside my paradigm.

So, after much prayer and reflection, I retired from practice on April 14, 2004, preparing for what I thought would be my ultimate transition. I remember whispering to myself, “If this is God’s calling for my life, I’m okay.”

But God had other plans.

Miracles in Motion

Thirty-one days after retirement, on May 15, 2004, I awoke to a series of powerful thoughts. The first was, quite bluntly, “You’re an idiot.” Harsh, yes – but true. For 25 years, I had preached the message of Chiropractic – of the body’s innate healing power – yet I had failed to truly live it. Although I had been checked and adjusted weekly or biweekly as necessary by various DC friends, I was not under care as a true practice member.

I made an appointment as a new patient – with full consultation, examination and X-rays. What was revealed shocked me: severe subluxations from C7 to T4, an area directly impacting heart and lung function. These subluxations had caused no musculoskeletal pain but were profoundly interfering with vital communication between my brain and the organs that sustained me.

I began getting adjusted five times a week. Within three months, my pulmonary pressure dropped to 27 mmHg, normal being 15mmHg. Within one year, it was normal. Within two years, my cardiomegaly had completely resolved. There was, however, residual spinal damage – a plastic deformity at T2 that made me prone to subluxation in that area, convincing me that returning to active practice was no longer an option.

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A New Chapter of Service

By the fall of 2006, I found myself drawn back to service – this time through education. I began volunteering again at Parker Seminars, which eventually led to a position as Vice President at Parker University in Dallas. Then, in 2013, Life University President Dr. Guy Riekeman invited me to join his executive team in Marietta, Georgia. I accepted the opportunity and have served there ever since, currently as Vice President of University Advancement.

“Go to the Track”

On a serene Sunday morning in July 2022, I awoke to a voice – clear, unmistakable: “Go to the track.” I looked around the room. No one was there. I heard it again: “Go to the track.”

Curiosity outweighed confusion, so I dressed and drove – not to the nearby high school track, but instinctively to Life University’s campus track. I walked with purpose, surrounded by birdsong and the whisper of wind through leaves. The experience stirred something long forgotten: the pure joy of running I had known as a young man.

That morning, I made a decision. I would train again, and by summer 2023, I would compete “just one more time.” Within weeks, I met Coach Keith Wright, who began preparing me for the masters track and field circuit. By December, he encouraged me to enter the indoor season – just for experience. That “experience” led to a gold medal in the 400m at the Southeast U.S. Track and Field Association Masters Championship in Norfolk, Virginia, then on to Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky, and finally, the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland. I was hooked.

During 2023, my first year as a masters athlete, I earned nine gold medals and one silver. In the summer of 2024, I trained alongside a rising star, Macy Tarlton, former US National Weightlifting Champion and Olympic bobsled hopeful, whose dedication and support reignited my own passion.

My “why” became crystal clear: to demonstrate the power of Chiropractic not just to heal but to elevate human performance – to win a medal at the 2025 World Championship, 20 years after I was supposed to die.

The Finish Line

In 2024, at the World Championships, I suffered a devastating injury – a full-thickness tear of my right rectus femoris and multiple microtears in surrounding muscles. Recovery was long and painful. Yet, on April 8, 2025, six months to the day of my injury, I stepped back onto the track, slow but determined.

In June 2025, I competed at the Southwest Region USATF Masters Championship in Houston, Texas and won gold in the 400m – not an impressive win, but I was back competing. By October 2025, I felt ready – this time for the Huntsman World Senior Games, World Championship, in St. George, Utah. My first couple races were humbling: fifth in the 200m, sixth in the 800m. Six chances to win a medal, but no medal – somewhat disappointing. But the next day, I had three more chances – the 400m, my event.

I warmed up carefully, prayed, meditated and made a simple decision as I was walking up to the start line: no blocks, standing start, lane 5, vision forward. The gun fired. I ran with every ounce of life and gratitude in me, with the goal of entering the second curve in line with or ahead of the other competitors. As I entered the final curve, I was in the lead with one other runner, and we were shoulder to shoulder in lanes 5 and 6. And all of a sudden, my heart whispered, or maybe it yelled: “It’s time to go.”

And I did, and my body responded.

I crossed the line first. A gold medal – and the title of World Champion in the 400m at age 70 –with a time of 1:11.58, a full 1.55 seconds ahead of silver.

Not bad for a man who was told he’d never live past 50.

Thank God for Chiropractic, for its truth, for the power that made the body and for every soul who has encouraged me on this miraculous journey of grit, commitment and persistence.

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For further information, please contact Dr. Gilles LaMarche via email at Gilles.LaMarche@life.edu, by phone at 770.426.2674, or by text at 214.3282.1500.