About Me

My Goal: Run the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2019 with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. Raise $17,000 (or more!) where 100% of funds raised benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. I run in honor of my friend Chris Davie who is battling brain cancer. I also run in honor for my friend RJ and his continued cancer-free life, in memory of Heather Thomson, and for other family and friends who are or have battled cancer. Together we can help Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer

Barr Program Impact Statements

Barr Program Impact Statements

Immunotherapies: New Ways to Activate the Immune System—An important area of cancer research asks why the human body's defense systems do not always attack and destroy tumors as they form. Funded by the Claudia Adams Barr Program, Glenn Dranoff, MD, discovered complex regulatory pathways in the human immune system that cancers exploit in order to escape destruction. Reversal of these effects can lead to the development of vaccines against cancer, like Provenge for prostate cancer. This research has also enabled the development of immune-activating drugs such as ipilimumab, which showed striking effects in melanoma in a trial led by Dana-Farber scientists and is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment.

Monday, December 22, 2014

DFMC Training Kicks Off

Saturday was the first group training run with this year's DFMC team.  After being sick and not running at all during the week, it was good to get out with both veterans and newcomers to the team. We had a great turnout of about 100 teammates and had great weather to start the training season, a clear and crisp 28F day.  I took it easy running only 8 miles for the morning, but still not feeling 100%, I wanted to make sure that I didn't get worse before the big guy in a red suit visits later in the week :)

It has also been a great start to this year's DFMC fundraising!  As of this morning, we've raised $1870 towards our goal of $11,000 for 2015!  This is fantastic considering we have 119 days to go until the marathon!  We also learned that the team has surpassed the $700,000 mark and we're well on our way to hitting our $5.3M goal for 2015.  What a great way to transition from 2014 into 2015!

As 2014 wraps up, thank you to everyone who has supported me and DFMC over the past 3 years.  When I first joined the team in 2011, I really didn't expect to run Boston so many years. The impact that I've seen from the fundraising and importantly, the great support from family, friends and in some cases people I've never met has been a huge motivator to continue the efforts.  Of course, running in honor of RJ and having developed such a great relationship with him and his family is a motivating factor that can't be put into words.  Thank you to everyone for past, current and future support!