Dear family and friends,
In just a week, on April 15, I will be running my 27th marathon for cancer research, lining up with hundreds of Dana-Farber runners in hot pink singlets with thousands of other runners in the 128th running of the Boston Marathon. Those who know me well will recall how much I poke fun at the pink baseball hats worn by fair-weather Red Sox fans, so I guess the joke is on me this year. At least you’ll see us running into Kenmore Square!
The other day, Kenzie and I were actually driving through Kenmore Square into the Longwood Medical area, home to Dana-Farber and several other world-class hospitals. The kids and I have a road trip game checking off the different state license plates we see. Old habits die hard – Kenzie started listing off plates as we passed them. Some you would expect – New Hampshire, New York, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut (so many from Connecticut!). But then she saw Ohio…North Carolina…Idaho…even California. After we laughed about how we could have played our game across one square mile instead of multiple states, Kenzie commented on how it just showed that Boston has the best hospitals in the world if people from all the way across the country will come this way to be treated here.
How right she is! Whether you were born and raised in Boston or live halfway across the world, Dana-Farber has served as a beacon for those battling cancer. Over the years, so many of you have shared stories about family and friends who have been treated for cancer, many of whom went to Dana-Farber.
As I thought about Kenzie’s observation, I couldn’t help but catch my breath thinking about the profound truth: what person wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth to help their partner, their parent, their child? How lucky are we to have Dana-Farber right here in Boston, along with so many other amazing hospitals.
It is an honor to run for Dana-Farber, with all its amazing clinicians and scientists who not only provide the highest quality of compassionate care, but also are on the leading edge of discoveries that will change the course of this disease in the years to come. And it’s an honor to run for you, for your family, for your friends. You have fueled my run, year after year, helping me to raise an extraordinary $198K, matched over the years by another $10.5K – more than $200K, all of which is funding innovative cancer research by Barr program investigators at Dana-Farber. So, please continue to support me as I run for this amazing institution.
http://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/goto/heatherkh
If you prefer to make a gift via check, message me and I’ll send you the form. And as always, don’t forget to share the names of loved ones who have or are battling cancer so that I can include them on my singlet.
See you on Monday!
With much love, thanks and appreciation,
-Heather
