12-Year-Old Girl With Rare Disease Has Unlikely Best Friend: A 330-Pound Powerlifter Nicknamed 'The Beast'
By Staff Reporter | Apr 06, 2016 05:27 PM EDT
At six feet tall and 330 pounds, 29-year-old motivational speaker and powerlifter David Douglas looks exactly like what his nickname, "The Beast," suggests. The former Marine is a three-time Camp Pendleton athlete of the year and can squat over 900 pounds, bench 600, and deadlift 770.
But if there's one thing bigger than Douglas' physique, it's his heart.
That's because Douglas puts his strength in the service of something even stronger than what is required to move piles of iron: the courage of a little girl named Lindsay Ratcliffe who suffers from progeria: a rare genetic disorder that causes children to appear to age rapidly.