CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. -- For 42 years, fitness instructor and gym owner Eric Welch led a tough life.

“I started out in foster care when I was seven years old,” he said. “I was abandoned by my mother, never knew who my father was, lot of abuse growing up as a child.”

In 2002, he also discovered he had leukemia. Despite all this, he remained strong, using fitness as a force in his life. He’s completed more than 50 5-k races, 45 Tough Mudders, 18 half marathons, three marathons and a triathlon.

“Every year, especially this year, doing 32 events, it gave me something to always take my mind off things,” he said. “I never let the cancer or leukemia or the treatments define who I am.”

Last year however, he also did something else to strike back, something most would probably never even consider: He legally changed his name to Darth Vader.

“It was kind of like a snake shedding the skin type of thing,” Vader said. “Darth Vader is a very imposing character who has only actually been on screen for 8 minutes. So that shows you the type of impact that he made, very physically imposing, and eventually he had some good in him and came clean with everything.”

Vader said he became a huge Star Wars fan when he saw 'The Empire Strikes Back' as a kid. While he said actually changing his name wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be, he did battle a few rebels.

“PayPal was the worst, because you’re talking a financial institution and money exchanges, so PayPal was horrible to try and verify my name,” Vader said, laughing.

He also said the confusion is strong with those who don’t know him personally, especially on the phone.

“If I’m calling them and they’re like ‘I need to have your name, please,’ and they’re like ‘well, we need your real name, please,’ and of course I’m like ‘this is my real name,' " Vader said.

So you may wonder what his Sith-Lords-in-training at the gym call him?

“Lord Darkness, Lord Vader, father,” Vader said.

Really, though, he said, they still just call him Eric. It’s that humor that keeps this Vader from going to the dark side.

Vader said he did have to sign an affidavit saying he wouldn't use the name to make money. He said about once a month, he makes a voluntary appearance around the area in his Darth Vader costume to cheer people up.