Lakeland resident Paul Clark is an inspiration to members of the South Lakeland Gold's Gym.
He is 59 years old and can bench 315 pounds for five reps on a bench press machine.
- Clark's House helps needy veterans
- After years battling addiction, Paul Clark started organization
- Want to learn more about Clark's House? Click here
What makes it extra remarkable is that he is blind. Clark was a cocaine dealer in 1989, and he was shot in the face after a drug deal gone bad.
It was the third time in his life he had been shot.
"We didn't have a physical fight, but he went home and got his gun and came back down the street and hollered my name and shot me," Clark said of the confrontation. "The last thing I remember is the pellets coming at me.
Pellets his eyes and left him blind for life.
Clark said he was addicted to cocaine for five years after he was shot. He finally got into a rehab program because he didn't want to miss out on being involved with his two young sons.
"That was my thing to make me get off behind to change and do something different," Clark said. He and his sons reconciled and now laugh about some of the things he did when he was involved with illegal drugs.
Clark's son, Desmond Clark, went on to be a star tight end in the National Football League.
Paul Clark eventually started an anti-drug program. Now he run runs an organization dedicated to helping needy veterans -- it's called Clark's House.
Clark sometimes has volunteers take him to homeless camps in the woods to seek out vets who need assistance.
Clark said he takes care of his health by going to the gym. That includes his spiritual health.
"I love it because it is where I get my time with the God of my understanding, my concentration, my meditation," he said.