I am honored to announce that I will be running the 129th Boston Marathon for Boston Children's Hospital (BCH). My journey with BCH started at my 6 month appointment when I was diagnosed with congenital dislocation of my right hip. I was immediately sent to BCH where I spent the first two years of my life. My team of doctors were unsure if I would ever be able to walk, and here I am preparing to complete my 9th Boston Marathon. At the age of 17, I returned back to BCH, where I had a scare of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, that after surgery, thankfully came back benign.

Now onto the more important girlies…..FINLEY and HARPER.

I am beyond lucky for the 3rd year in a row, to call these two my patient partners. 

Finley's journey with Boston Children’s Hospital also started early on. Finley was

born 6 weeks early and remained in the NICU for 16 days. At the age of 2.5, Finley was diagnosed with Smith Magenis Syndrome (SMS) by her team of doctors at BCH. SMS is a rare global developmental disorder. The major features of this condition include mild to moderate intellectual disability, delayed speech and language skills, distinctive facial features, sleep disturbances and behavioral outbursts. Throughout her testing, they discovered Finley was also born with one kidney.

Finley currently sees many doctors at BCH, including a Neurologist for SMS, Neurologist for Autism, Orthopedic, Ophthalmologist, Audiologist, a Speech Pathologist for Augmentative Communication and a Nephrologist. Finley was in AFO braces when she first learned to walk, but very quickly grew out of them and is able to effortlessly run/walk on her own. She is currently receiving speech, OT, PT and ABA therapy. Finely had a neuropsych eval where she was also diagnosed with Autism at the age of 5.

Finley is now a fun loving, vibrant 10 year old 4th grader. She is full of love and light, even after her mother, Theresa, tragically lost her battle to Breast Cancer in 2021. She loves giving hugs, saying hi and bye, looking at books, listening to music, matching letters, numbers, colors, shapes and working hard at school. Finley can now also recognize and verbally say the alphabet, numbers up to 20 along with sorting tall/short and big/small. 

Harper's journey with BCH started when she was just over a week old. She was rushed to Children's after her parents noticed she was breathing fast and working really hard to breathe. She was then admitted to BCH for one month. Harper underwent multiple tests, spent time in the ICU on bipap, received Oxygen, etc. After spending a month at BCH. Harper was released with follow up appointments and an Oxygen monitor.

During all of Harper's tests, many unrelated health issues evolved. Harper had a moderate Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), which thankfully closed on its own, cysts on her thyroid, fluid around her brain, reflux and hypotonia. Harper also had a tethered spinal cord, which was corrected at BCH when she was 7 months old.

Harper currently is a sweet loving covered in cuteness 4 years old. She had a neuropsych eval at BCH which confirmed she is cognitively at a 8 month level and she also received an Autism diagnosis. Harper wears glasses to help her focus which she loves to wear now, receives speech where she is working with an AAC device to communicate, OT, PT and ABA therapy along with being enrolled in school full-time.

Harper has learned to pass things to her parents that she wants, and pull them to show them what she wants. Harper is a very happy, loving girl who loves Disney princess movies, swings at the park, pools, splash pads and hearing and dancing to her favorite songs. Harper also loves jumping on her trampoline and visiting trampoline parks where she recently has been able to navigate the steps to the slide independently!! She also utilizes equipment at the playground. 

Please know that with your donation, you will not only be supporting these two amazing girls who have overcome such obstacles at such young ages, but many other children under the care of Boston Children’s Hospital. “Until Every Child is Well.”

THANK YOU!!!!