In 26 years, Eric Gold ran a half marathon, raced up 94 flights of stairs for charity, patrolled the waters at a children's diabetes camp, started his own photography business and interned in a U.S. Attorney's Office.
In that same time, Gold battled diabetes, underwent a double lung transplant, coped with a disease that deprived him of almost all of his adrenaline, and fought cancer with rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
The second-year UF law student died Sunday at Shands at UF from pneumonia related to his cancer and a lung transplant.
"He had so many medical challenges thrown at him, and he never let any one of them stop him until the cancer did," said Randy Gold, Eric Gold's father.
Gold said his son's medical issues began at age 7 when he was diagnosed with diabetes. Although he was young, he confronted the disease head-on by attending Florida Diabetes Camp at various locations in the state to learn how to manage it.. He also volunteered as a counselor, lifeguard, program director and member of the camp's board of directors.
Randy Gold said his son was diagnosed with lung disease in 2003 after he learned to live with his diabetes. He received a double lung transplant in July 2004, Gold said. Seven months later, he climbed 94 flights of stairs for a respiratory health fundraiser, and later that year he ran a half marathon.
He was planning on graduating law school in spring 2009 to become a federal prosecutor or medical malpractice attorney, Gold said.
Lyrissa Lidsky, a UF law professor who taught Eric Gold in two classes, said earning a law degree was one of the most important things to him.
"If he was not in the hospital, he was in class, and if he was in class, he was prepared," Lidsky said.
When she announced in her class Tuesday that Eric Gold had died, she said students told her how his courage inspired them.
"It's just something somebody in their 20s should never have to face, and he faced it with such courage and fought to the end," she said.
