LAFAYETTE PARISH — In Lafayette, drivers who travel down Camellia Boulevard may have seen a man running in a pelican suit in the area. George Boudreaux, owner of Pelican Roofing, started this fun on May 13th in order to raise awareness for one local Iberia Parish family.
"I've been getting a lot of honks, a lot of participation from the community. I'm a little surprised at how excited people are just to see a pelican running down the road," said Boudreaux. "I'm running a 5K a day for 30 days straight in order to raise awareness for this family, the Bayard family, in New Iberia that could really use some help right now." Brannon and Sonya Bayard are high school sweethearts. In May of 2022, their lives changed forever. Brannon suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke while riding his motorcycle on an interstate. "When he had turned off that's when the hemorrhage hit, and he actually died so he lost the left side because it's called a hemorrhagic stroke. He lost the left side, so he just laid his bike down to the right and then when he fell, he had two more brain bleeds on the outside of his brain," said Sonya.
An MRI found how big the hemorrhage was and that Brannon had microbleeds all over his brain. "They pretty much told me that because of the extent of his injuries and because of their past studies in history and everything that they've ever seen, they have never seen a patient survive what he did," said Sonya. Sonya said Brannon was in a coma for two and a half weeks. He's suffered two strokes since the first incident and has been in and out of therapy, but while caring for Brannon, Sonya found out she had her own health battle to face. "The doctor comes in and he says I'm almost positive that it's cancer. He said I could be wrong," said Sonya.
Sonya was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer last year. She had a mastectomy done to remove one breast and is preparing for surgery to remove the other breast as a precaution, but it was Brannon who reassured her that everything would be fine. " I tell him and he's like it's going to be okay. He was like I just know it's going to be okay," said Sonya. Sonya said their community surrounded them with love and support through this journey including Pelican Roofing. Boudreaux said the Bayard family's strength inspired him, "Someone is always dealing with something a little worse than you are. One thing that motivates me is to gain perspective and I find when you do things for other people, the focus comes off of ourselves," said Boudreaux.
If you would like to donate, visit www.runwithroofus.com
