Simon's Fundraising Page

The Challenge

On April 21st, thousands of runners will take to the streets to participate in the 129th Boston Marathon®. Hundreds of these runners will be doing so on behalf of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team runs and raises funds with thousands of special people in mind. From Hopkinton to Boston, we carry thoughts of those people every step of the way.
 
One hundred percent of every dollar raised by the DFMC team supports the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. These funds are fueling some of today's most promising basic cancer research.

My Story

Growing up in a middle-class family, I learned about the values of life from my parents, especially my mother. My father was not around a lot during the week as he worked the night-shift to earn extra money for the family, I remember seeing him as I left for school some mornings but mainly at weekends.

This meant my mother was the person that my brother, sister and I would go to when it came to help with doing homework. She was always very patient with us and made sure that we understood what we were doing before we put pen to paper.

My father encouraged my brother, sister and myself to find a sport that we would like to pursue. My father was a high jumper in his younger days and like every kid I wanted to be like my father and started track and field. I found that not only was a good at high jump but in many other of the events, and ended up competing in the decathlon. My older brother was also good at track and field, wanted to be just like my father so he focused on the high jump only; whereas my sister chose swimming. Swim training was so juxtaposed to track and field, this usually happened early in the morning while track and field in the evenings. My father would take my sister swimming in the morning and my brother and I to track and field on a Tuesday and Thursday evenings before going to work.

One of the things that this taught me was the value of family and the sacrifices that parents make to give their children the best possible start in life. Something that has stuck with me to this day.

After leaving school I went on to college to earn my degree, you can imagine how proud I was and how proud this made my mother. I remember all the years of my mother supporting me academically growing up, and how that instilled me with a great foundation that I was able to draw upon while studying.

I got married and my wife and I were starting to build a life of our own. A few months after moving into our new home my wife and I found out that we would be having a baby. We were so excited to tell our parents that they would be having a grandchild.  We went round to see my mother and father, but upon entering the house there was a somber mood. Before we had time to share our good news my mother informed me that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She told my wife and I that she had been keeping this information away from all of her children because she did not want to burden us. After the shock had worn off a little my wife and I decided to share our news, which seemed a bit of a moot point at the time.

What we didn’t realize when we left that day was how little time my mother actually had, and it was only a couple of weeks later that she was admitted to hospital. I remember the last time I visited her; it was on the Sunday afternoon and the conversation centered around how proud she was of everything that I had accomplished to date. My education, my job, the life that was ahead of me. I left for work on the Monday, at the time I was working away from home in the week and it was a two hour drive to the office. I was in the office for less than an hour before I got a phone call that I needed to return home and go the Hospital. Unfortunately, by the time that I arrived my mother had passed away, she was only 49 years old, I was numb and devastated. You can only imagine my disappointment that she never got to meet her grandson, who was born 5 months later.

Time can heal some wounds but I fondly remember my mother as someone who gave me unconditional encouragement growing up, someone who was a pillar of our family dynamics growing up.

As I have gone through life, I had many times where I have thought about my mother and wondered, what would have been if she was still alive. She would have seen her grand children grow up, and I am sure that she would have been integral in supporting my wife and I in their upbringing.

Thank you for your support! Together, we're headed toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.