People of all ages take off Thursday along the trail at Rose Rudman Park in Tyler for the regular weekly Walk With A Doc gathering. The special guest physician this week was Dr. David Sabgir, a Columbus, Ohio, cardiologist who started the Walk With A Doc program nationally in 2005. Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

As Dr. David Sabgir, founder of the national Walk With a Doc program, walked Rose Rudman Trail on Thursday evening, he listened to stories of health and the struggle for it, including one participant who’d completed chemotherapy only two hours earlier.

The Ohio cardiologist’s presence attracted more than 30 people who joined the two-mile walk. Several times along the way, individuals stopped to tell their story and thank Sabgir for being a part of it.

“I put in a drop and get out buckets,” Sabgir said of what he’s gotten back since creating the program in 2005.

Sabgir said he felt ineffective giving advice to patients in his office and trying to get them to exercise for heart health, so he challenged them to walk with him and his family.

Since the first walk, the program has expanded to more than 200 sites in 40 states and has a simple mission: invite patients and their families to join doctors on walks to encourage healthy physical activity.

The Smith County Medical Society is in its second year hosting the Walk With a Doc program, with walks every Thursday evening. At each walk, local physician Dr. Li-Yu Mitchell and her colleagues address different health topics and answer questions.

Mitchell knew Dr. Sabgir would be coming to Dallas for a medical conference and decided to invite him to join the Thursday walk.

“We always have Thursday walks, so I called him and asked him to join us … he literally got off the plane and drove down here,” Mitchell said.