I've joined the Miles for Miracles team to help the brave kids at Boston Children's Hospital.

As many of you know, Nyla and I moved to Boston just over 10 years ago. An unexpected source of our sense of community here has been Boston Children’s Hospital. In April 2025 I’m running the Boston Marathon for the Children’s Hospital’s Miles for Miracles team to benefit Children’s, our goal is to raise $25,000. Most importantly, I have the honor of running on behalf of an incredible patient partner, Oton Porres.

We met the Porres family through our son Bash’s pre-school, where Oton’s older sister Nunila also attended. Oton and his family are from Mexico and have endured quite the journey to Boston. During the summer of 2017, Oton started losing the function of his left arm. After several scans at a local hospital it was determined that he had some "fat" build up and that it would go away. Well it didn't, and progressively got worse, to the point that he lost function of all his limbs, leaving him essentially paralyzed. His family made the courageous decision to jump on a plane to Boston and went right from the airport in the middle of the night to the emergency room at Children's. After several hours of tests, it was determined he had a very aggressive tumor and surgery was performed later that day. During the next 2 months Oton almost died 4 separate times.

Fast forward to today, more than 7 years later, and Oton has been through several additional procedures and continues to receive both treatment and physical therapy from Children's. He has gained functionality back in all his limbs and is running around like a normal little boy!! He is full of smiles and life and has become quite the Red Sox fan. Their journey is not over yet, however. The Porres family will stay in Boston to ensure that Oton's treatment is completed and that he continues to be cancer free. Oton's parents, Andrea & Antonio, credit the hospital with saving Oton's life and cannot have imagined him surviving if he had been treated anywhere else. Not only did the hospital provide the treatment that saved Oton's life, they also provided support and peace for the rest of the family as they went through this difficult time.

Oton wouldn’t still be here fighting every day if it weren’t for Children’s and my family would have never met the Porres family if they didn’t uplift their lives to get their son the greatest care in the world. Selfishly, because Children’s brought the Porres family to Boston, Nyla and I have these new amazing, and hopefully lifelong, friends – going back to Children’s unexpected source of community.

If you are inspired by Oton’s story, don’t let it stop with you. Your friends’ and family’s support are equally valuable to yours – don’t be shy to forward send this page! We are doing this together for Oton and all the other children like him and all their families that have been impacted so positively by Children’s.

Every dollar I raise funds the very best medical care, breakthrough research and vital support services for sick kids and their families. Your gift will:

• help children from your town and across the world get a second chance at life;
• give kids battling the most complex diseases care they can't find anywhere else;
• fuel 3,000+ researchers working to develop new treatments and cures;
• support patient programs, like music and art therapy, to let kids be kids, even during long hospital stays;
• help patient families in crisis with urgent needs, such as food, clothing and housing;
• deliver the most compassionate, leading-edge care to every child who needs it. 

Please support my fundraising and help the incredible kids and families at Boston Children's Hospital.