I’m excited to be running my 8th Boston Marathon as part of the Miles for Miracles team. All money raised goes directly to Boston Children’s Hospital to support their amazing work. This year I’ll be running for two very special patient partners.
The first is my long-time patient partner, Madelyn. I met Madelyn in 2012 while training for my first Boston Marathon with Children’s Hospital. I’ve since had the privilege of being paired with Madelyn over the last 10+ years. Madelyn received life-saving care at BCH when she was just 6months old. In February 2011, Madelyn was rushed to BCH for emergency surgery to treat a malformed vein in her brain. Her surgeon was one of four people in the country who performed this procedure on children. She went on to spend additional time at the hospital to treat a large blood clot in her brain that resulted from the surgery. Today Madelyn is a thriving 13 year old thanks to the care she received at BCH.
I’m also running for Colin who is currently battling kidney cancer. Colin was diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrom (BWS), a congenital growth disorder, when he was 5 months old. This puts Colin at increased risk of developing childhood cancer, among other possible impacts of BWS. Given the diagnosis, Colin has been closely monitored at BCH and receives quarterly scans and blood draws to check for tumors. This past May (at age 2), doctors discovered a Wilms tumor had developed on his left kidney. Colin quickly started treatment at both BCH and Dana Farber to attack the cancer. As a mother with a child Colin’s age- I can’t even begin to imagine what Colin or his family are going through. It gives me comfort to know that we have such incredible medical care available here at BCH to help kids battle these unimaginable diagnoses. For that- I’m incredibly grateful and honored to run for such an important cause.
Any help supporting my run is greatly appreciated as we work to ensure that kids like Madelyn & Colin receive the best care possible!