Rowgirl goes running again #DFMC25 #Boston2014

It seems that I've been getting steady traffic to this blog recently, so I'm going to post my #DFMC25 email draft so you can say "I saw it first…" And thanks for any support you can give. 

I hope this finds you and your family doing well. As you may know already, I am a member of the 25^th Dana Farber Marathon Challenge Team (#DFMC25), a team of over 700 runners raising money to benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research, which is located at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in Boston, MA. Our team goal this year is to raise $5.3 million dollars for the Barr Program and personally, I hope to raise $10,000 while training to run my 2^nd marathon on April 21, 2014 at the 2014 Boston Marathon.

In 2001, I was introduced to the DFMC while rowing at Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge, MA by a rowing friend who arranged to have a group of us rowers row a marathon on the Charles River and raise funds for the DFMC. I rowed all 26.2 miles alone in my single and ended up with one sore butt, but also knew that 100% of the dollars I raised were going to give cancer a kick in the butt too by supporting new and innovative cancer research by gifted and determined scientists at DFCI.

For me, the fight against cancer has always been connected to basic, preclinical research. When my younger brother Brian was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 1993 and receiving treatment in Boston in 94 and 95, I was a student and undergrad/graduate researcher in labs at UNH and Tufts. Now I support the efforts of those researchers to get basic fundamental discoveries through the 10-15 yr clinical translational process from lab bench to bedside. In 1995 I lost Brian - my quiet, funny, incredibly talented and wonderful brother, just shy of his 18^th birthday. Eighteen years later, I still miss him terribly, but am constantly reminded of his joy in what was important: his family and friends, his home town, sports, being outdoors, and keeping a sense of humor, even through tough times. And it was this joy and love that I took to the 2009 Boston Marathon where I ran my first marathon and raised over $10,000 for the DFMC.

This time though, I’m also running for Julie.

When I was 5 months pregnant with our daughter Brynna, our Cilley Hill neighbor introduced me to Julie Kelliher, 6 months pregnant with her daughter, Riley. We connected immediately and as we relayed our stories over the next 4 months, hiking to the outlook behind her house and walking the woods of Underhill, we realized our lives had crossed many, many times prior in NH, at UNH, in Boston, but it took VT and our girls to actually bring us together. Over the next 5 years, Julie was my sounding board on all things – work, parenting, living in VT and often those conversations went on over the dirt roads of Underhill as we ran together. In late 2012, Julie received an initial diagnosis of MS that seemed to explain her increasing fatigue, nausea, and dizziness, but initial treatments didn’t make a dent. In fact, she was getting worse, and a CT scan in January 2013 showed the real culprit, a glioblastoma multiforma (GBM) brain tumor that was inoperable. We lost Julie February 10, 2013 and VT, the world, lost a smart, generous, beautiful soul.

I was achingly sad.

I was incredibly angry.

So I started to run again.

Julie and Brian are just two of the many incredible individuals I have known and know who live or lived with cancer. I know you also have your family, friends, and colleagues living or you have fought a form of this disease yourself. Too many of us find ourselves, our loved ones, confronted with a cancer diagnosis, and while years of study have brought amazing therapies to many types of cancers, there are still more that need their cure brought to light by new research and new therapies. This is what the DFMC team runs for and is why I am again taking on the challenge.

Although there are many incredible efforts out there to support the fight against cancer, the DFMC and the Barr Program are one of a few that support efforts at the basic and very fundamental levels of research. In addition, 100% of any donation you make goes directly to those research efforts, since the Barr Program is fully supported administratively. This means when you give to the DFMC team you are directly funding experiments that could be the foundation of the next chemotherapy, the next diagnostic, and the next therapeutic treatments that we aren’t even aware of yet.

I hope you will join me in supporting innovative research and new understanding of all types of cancer. You can make a donation either at my DFMC webpage or through the mail. Checks should be made out to "Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge" and sent to me at 35 Crombie St, Burlington, VT 05401.

Thank you so much for any amount you can give and for supporting my run and the DFMC team.  In addition, when you make a donation, I will attach a ribbon to my singlet in honor of an individual of your choosing. Their strength and courage will help carry me through the race.

Finally, you can keep track of my training progress on Twitter @rowgirl2012, on Google.com/KerryElizabethSwift and on my blog at http://rowgirlgoesrunning.blogspot.com. I’ll be in touch at least once more before heading to Boston and will make sure you all get a race report after the race. And if you are near the course on the 21st, please come down and cheer the DFMC team on – I’d love to see and hear you!