Gena Laielly from Somers Point, New Jersey took this challenge earlier in January at her own gym Genfitness by organizing a Burpee- a- thon, where a panel of six judges recorded each of their movements. The motive was to raise money for Omphalocele research, a little known birth disease that has impacted her daughter since birth. Her daughter was born with the defect, which causes an infant’s organs to stick out of the belly through the belly button. Organs may include small and large intestines, liver etc which are covered in a thin, translucent sac.

Though, she was warned of her baby’s condition beforehand, miscarriage wasn’t likely to happen and continued with the pregnancy. Like a miracle, Lailly gave birth to her daughter in June 2013, after spending weeks on bedrest. Emma, who was born a good 7 weeks before the due date, was admitted right to the Neo – Natal Intensive Care unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and even when she went home, she was on ventilator and required nursing care.

Now, after about three surgeries, the 6 year old is thriving and is expected to start her school early this year.

To raise awareness, Gena and Emma celebrate Omphalocele Awareness Month every January, this year inspiring everyone by holding a Burpee –a – thon in her own gym, and impressively the 37 year old broke the world record by doing 5332 burpees in 12 hours. The previous record was held by Eva Clark in Abu Dhabi who did 4785 ‘chest to ground push up burpees’ in 12 hours. Her application has been received by the Guinness book of world record, which is under review, something that could take weeks before a response

Through this challenge, Gena and Emma wanted to raise money for Omphalocele research and CHOP, to whom she’s thankful for.

During the last 10 minutes of the challenge, Gena was joined by her daughter who did the last of the challenge together.

Talking about her daughter’s journey, Laielly said:
“We just took it hour by hour in the NICU because no one had any answers and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I’m glad we gave her that chance because she’s six years old and she has a bunch of scars and she is totally fine.

To see her doing burpees and knowing all that she went through and she’s busting burpees like it’s nothing, that just made my da. She is the strongest person I know.”

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