April 12, 2005
Survivors say 'thanks' with Marathon Challenge run
(left to right) Uri Berenguer, Melissa Miller and Kevin Roy gear up for the 2005 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge.
Their first visits to Dana-Farber came nearly 20 years apart, but it is a shared commitment to the Institute and their caregivers that will propel cancer survivors Kevin Roy and Uri Berenguer 26.2 miles in the Boston Marathon on April 18.
The former patients will each be running the famous race for the first time on Patriots Day Monday, as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC). And while the stories behind how they came to be teammates on this special squad are different, they have a similar passion for the cause they are supporting: the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana- Farber.
Roy and Berenguer, like all DFMC runners, will be responsible for collecting at least $2,500 for the Barr Program – started in 1987 by Institute Trustees J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver in memory of her mother, who died of breast cancer. The Marathon Challenge has contributed more than $22 million to the program since 1990, some of it collected by staff and former patients tackling the Hopkinton-to-Copley Square course.
In the case of Berenguer, his participation in the 16th DFMC is the culmination of a dream first hatched when he was a pre-teen already a decade into his treatment here, and watched the marathon as a member of the Patient Partner Program. The program matches Challenge runners with young Jimmy Fund Clinic patients, who wait for them on race day with Dana-Farber staff at the 25-mile mark just outside Kenmore Square. When one of the youngsters spots his or her runner – the brightly colored DFMC singlets are a big help – a high-five, hug, and sometimes even a jog together to the finish line ensues.
"I had two different partners over the years, Peter Farber Santis [grandson of DFCI Founder Sidney Farber, MD] and Mike McNabb, and I ran to the finish with both of them," says Berenguer, now 22. "My Dana-Farber doc, Lindsay Frazier, [MD], who is like my second mom, ran for several years, too, and I always felt I was accomplishing something myself when I saw her go by. She and I talked about my running someday, but nothing serious ever came of it." Until now. In remission after 16 years of treatment for the rare cancer histiocytosis, Berenguer is a radio broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox on all-Spanish WROL-950 AM. One day last summer, he was surprised in his Fenway Park booth by Marathon Challenge Director Jan Ross and his first partner, Santis, who Berenguer had not seen in more than a decade. "I heard you're running the marathon," Santis said, and just like that, Uri decided to make the commitment. "They cornered me," he jokes, but it's clear he's excited about the prospect of participating in this great event from the other side.
"One of the biggest thrills will be seeing my first Jimmy Fund banner," says Berenguer, who is running in honor of his mother, a current Dana-Farber patient. "There are not too many people for whom that symbol is more important than me. Six or seven years ago, I was the kid holding that banner and cheering the runners on. Now I've come full circle."
Showing the Way
"Thanks to Dana-Farber's expanded partnership with the Boston Athletic Association, we have our largest DFMC team ever this year – more than 500 runners," Ross says of the 2005 squad, which hopes to raise $3.4 million including a $250,000 challenge grant from the Weavers. "We have 35 kids and runners matched up in the Patient Partner Program, and another 22 people running in memory of pediatric patients. The mood on race day is always incredibly inspirational, and it's the efforts of everybody involved – from partners to volunteers to fans cheering them on – that keep these runners going strong."
Among those whose emotions will be running high is Roy. A testicular cancer patient in December 2003, he was at Dana-Farber for his first consult with Timothy Gilligan, MD, when he happened across the "Marathon Way" exhibit in the hallway connecting the Dana and Shields Warren buildings. He was inspired by the photo montage of past DFMC runners on the walls, and when he showed the display to his girlfriend, Melissa Miller, a veteran of two marathons, she immediately decided to join the Challenge team for the '04 race.
"I was very nervous because I couldn't even start training until January, three months before the race, but this gave all of us who cared about Kevin something positive to focus on," says Miller, who raised more than $6,000 for the Barr Program last year. "Some of my long training runs came right after one of his surgeries, and between putting in the miles, working, and visiting him in the hospital, I got almost no sleep. I just felt like I had to do it."
Watching for Miller with the Dana-Farber contingent at Mile 25, Roy was swept up by the moment. "It was very emotional, and when I saw her, I hopped in and ran with her for a while," Roy recalls. "I had made a little banner that said 'Go, Melissa!" and I ran behind her holding it up. It was just after my surgery, so I didn't last very long."
Roy, in fact, had never run more than a mile at one time, but inspired by Miller and the rest of her DFMC teammates, he vowed to join them this year. "Melissa and I run on Tuesday and Thursday nights at home (in Manchester, Conn.), then head to Boston for the weekend training runs," he says. "It's an awesome group of people, and this is my way of saying 'thank you" to all they are doing for us as patients and survivors."
