The Northern High senior slimmed down thanks to David Turner, who died from lymphoma at 24.

David's courage inspired his mother, Suzanne, and others to create the Durham Fitness Challenge. For the past 12 weeks we've followed three participants in The Durham News.

The man taking the photos for our stories, Mark Dolejs, also worked on our Day in the Life of Durham project last summer. That was his shot of 2-year old Marek Burgess being lifted in the air by his parents at the Durham Bulls game Aug. 25.

Last week I sat across from Mark at Mad Hatter's on Broad Street. I noticed a tattoo on his inside wrist, V:III, and asked him about it.

The V:III stands for Romans 5 verse three. The whole verse is actually verses three and four, and it goes like this:

"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (New International Version)

David Turner had the same tattoo. One day, long after a photo shoot turned into a friendship, David turned to Mark and said, "Hey, we need to get you a tattoo."

"It was just very eerie," Mark recalled. "He told me that after I'd already decided to get it."

David's illness would kill him. But his optimism and focus on others despite his suffering, made a lasting impression.

When Mark first shot David for another newspaper, the idea was to follow him throughout his treatment, no matter what. David didn't have health insurance and the paper was considering a series to show what can happen when catastrophic illness strikes the uninsured.

But a month into the assignment, he told his editor if they wanted to continue they'd have to find another shooter. He'd become too close to his subject.

"I couldn't get a picture of him looking lonely, which is how he described himself," Mark recalled and laughed. "He was so excited to see me."

David asked Mark to speak at his funeral, but Mark said he could not. The friends spent almost every day together in the last three weeks of David's life, and it would have been too emotional for him. Later Suzanne asked Mark to read Romans 5: 3-5 at her son's funeral, which he agreed to do.

"I was still very emotional when reading the verse, but it was a little easier since I had something specific to read," he said.

When someone dies, it's hard to remember everything about them. The sound of their voice, even the details of their face, can fade with time.

Mark has a memory of David Turner that will not fade. When he faces his own adversity he looks down at his wrist and remembers a dying man's undying courage.

"He lived by that verse."