On April 16, several Somerville residents are running to conquer cancer as members of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team in the 122nd Boston Marathon. Residents include: Michelle Curtis, Heather Hagerty, Kelly Higgins, Thomas, Michael Katzeff, Nick Kern, Ali Kornfeld, Peter Lorinser, Samantha Rose, Jeffrey Smith, and Lauren Taylor.

Along with more than 500 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge teammates from across the United States and around the world, they will run Massachusetts’ historic marathon route from Hopkinton to Boston to raise $5.5 million for cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

This year marks the 29th annual running of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC). One hundred percent of the money raised by the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team goes to Dana-Farber’s Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research that supports promising science research in its earliest stages. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge has raised more than $85 million for the Barr Program to date.

In 1990, Dana-Farber was among the first charity organizations to be recognized by the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A), which organizes the Boston Marathon. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team offers its members extensive fundraising support, training guidance from 1976 Boston Marathon men’s champion Jack Fultz, and team training runs, plus volunteer opportunities for non-runners. Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge runners who are not time-qualified for the Boston Marathon receive an invitational entry into the race.

Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge runners include cancer survivors and patients, and family and friends of those who have been affected by cancer.  Each team member must fulfill a basic fundraising commitment:

• Invitational runners, runners who receive their entry from Dana-Farber, have a fundraising commitment of $5,000.
• Own entry runners, runners who have joined the DFMC after obtaining their own race entry, have a fundraising commitment of $4,000.

A cornerstone of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge is its Patient Partner Program. Each year, approximately 50 current and former pediatric cancer patients of Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic are paired with DFMC runners as “Patient Partners.”  For the young patients, their partnerships with the runners provide a unique and friendly focus outside their illnesses. Another two dozen Partner Program families are paired with runners through the “In-Memory Program” in remembrance of their children’s brave struggle with the disease.

To contribute to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, visit RunDFMC.org or contact the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge office at (617) 632-1970 or dfmc@dfci.harvard.edu. Follow DFMC on Facebook: www.facebook/marathonchallenge. On Twitter: #RunDFMC.

Dana-Farber’s Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research

Since its inception in 1990, the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge has raised more than $85 million for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. Dana-Farber Trustees J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver founded the program in 1987 to honor Mrs. Weaver’s mother, Claudia Adams Barr, who lost her battle with cancer 30 years earlier.

— Courtesy of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute