Happy New Year to you, family and friends! I hope the holiday season has been filled
with a lot of laughter, joy, and peace.
The beginning of the New Year provides us all an opportunity to think
about our resolutions for the coming year while reflecting on the past and
hoping for the future.
One of my resolutions for 2013 is to raise $28,000 while
training for and ultimately completing the Boston Marathon in April. As many of you know, for the past four years
I have run the Boston Marathon as a member of the Dana-Farber Marathon
Challenge team in an effort to raise valuable funds for the Claudia Barr
Program in Innovative Cancer Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I am honored to again be a member of this
successful and positive team and I would appreciate your support during this
milestone year.
This run each year, and the training season that leads up to
it, is quite significant and important to me.
I run in memory of my three siblings, Molly, Mary and John, who at too
young an age lost their lives to cancer.
It’s a reality that is often still too difficult to really think about
and absorb, especially during the holiday season when we feel the impact of
their absence so greatly. Unfortunately,
there are many other families who also feel similar loss right now, and sadly,
most of us will at some point in the future. It is for
Molly, Mary, and John, and all of our families, that we should join together
for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge as runners and as supporters.
The Barr Program at Dana-Farber is one of the largest and
most successful research programs of its kind, funding the brightest and most
creative scientists who are making discoveries that are transforming cancer
treatment across all therapeutic areas.
These breakthroughs are creating real change right now, resulting in improved
survival rates and better quality of life for thousands of patients all around
the world. Every penny of your gift-ONE
HUNDRED PERCENT- goes directly to this program and these amazing scientists. Your gifts are truly making an impact and the
benefit for our families and friends will be far reaching.
Making a gift to the Barr Program is easy. You can visit www.runDFMC.org/2013/jennies and
follow the link to make an online contribution that goes directly to Barr
Program researchers, or you can send a check made out to the Dana-Farber
Marathon Challenge to me at home.
We don’t get to pick who gets cancer, nor are we able to
decide who responds to treatment and who doesn’t. It’s not a choice, and unfortunately, the
challenging reality is that we all know someone whose life has been directly
affected by cancer. But we can fulfill
our obligation to our families, our friends, and ourselves to keep fighting the
good fight. To accept the responsibility
to generate important changes. Together, we are making an impact and are
moving towards the ultimate finish line of a world without cancer.
Thank you in advance for your generosity, kindness, and
support.
Be good. Be strong.
With gratitude,
Jennie Firth Sheridan
