It is with deep sadness that we say goodbye to our friend and inspiration, David Clark, who died on Thursday after surgical complications to correct a herniated disc. He will truly be missed.
David always spoke honestly of his past addiction to fast food, narcotics and alcohol. His passionate vegan advocacy came from his own experience of hitting rock bottom and staying there, his body breaking down under the burden of what he was putting into it. Thankfully, something changed, and he found one day that he had fight within him for good health, and for life.
Watch David’s powerful and moving film:
“I needed something that seemed impossible. I needed something that required me to look at the world and act in an entirely different way than I ever had before. I gotta create a new life for myself that’s so amazing that I’d have to be an absolute idiot to walk away from it.”
From that day, David developed a new relationship with food. He became vegan, and found what he was looking for in endurance running as a healthy, strong, plant-based athlete, and soon completed his first 100-mile race. He went on to complete over 30 ultramarathons, breaking numerous records in the process. From there, he used his own experience to motivate others, and his passion for good health, for living positively and with joy, helped many other people transform their lives, too. His third book Eat Sh*t and Die was published just this month.
David told us how he had once been so careless about his own life, thinking: “You only go through life once and if living the way I want to live takes a few years off my life then so be it.” But, with his father fighting cancer, he came to understand that time is so very precious. “Five years!” he told us. “I threw that number out there like it was nothing. What would my kids give to have me for five more years, five months, five days? Five hours is huge.”
Time is indeed precious, and we are devastated not to have David in this world for longer, campaigning alongside us for a vegan future. His advocacy changed and saved lives, and we are honored to have gotten to know him.
Rest well, Superman.
