On April 15th, I’ll be once again running the Boston Marathon® for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC). This will be my fourth time running Boston and second as part of the DFMC team, and I couldn’t be more excited to take on this challenge.
Recently a close family friend, Kathy Lorina, was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma; a blood cancer that produces excess proteins that can cause damage to various organs, particularly the bones and the kidneys. A lifelong community activist, she’s served as a school committee member, religious education teacher, and many other volunteer roles. Today she is receiving weekly chemotherapy treatments at Dana Farber and continues to live life to the fullest never missing an opportunity to spend time with family and friends.
In 2004, my housemate and teammate on the hockey team at Fairfield University Kevin Ryan succumbed to a brain tumor. A friend to all who knew him, Kevin had an infectious personality. He was a talented athlete with hall of fame credentials, who had a brilliant future in financial services. He was 29.
Over the last 25 years, no less than 20 family or close friends have been touched by cancer in one form or another. I’m sure you and your family can relate. Today my cousin Joan Campbell, who’s a spry 92-years young, is a three-time cancer survivor (breast and lung) thanks to the miraculous work of the people at Dana Farber. In addition, my cousins Billy Lawless and Denise Lawless are waging their own battles against colon and bladder cancer respectively. Both are undergoing treatment and while their prognosis today is good, there is still much work to be done to support the critically needed research to eradicate this deadly disease.
All funds—a full 100 percent—raised by DFMC benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, widely recognized as one of the largest and most successful programs of its kind. Based on a rigorous and highly selective process, the Barr Program funds the brightest, most creative scientists making basic research discoveries that are transforming cancer treatment.
Barr Investigators have made numerous major breakthroughs resulting in improved survival rates and quality of life for thousands of patients everywhere. Barr Investigators have made, and continue to make, amazing advances in diverse areas of cancer research. For example, Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, and colleagues developed a novel approach to researching how drugs currently used for one cancer might be highly effective in treating other cancers in completely unanticipated ways. This breakthrough led to the discovery that the drug Gefitinib, used initially only for a type of chronic leukemia, could be effective for acute leukemias and led directly to a promising new clinical trial at Dana-Farber.
In 2022, my daughter Payton and I each ran and together raised over $18,000. This year, my personal goal is to raise $12,000 towards our DFMC team goal of $7.85 million!
