Marion family joins Jimmy Fund Walk to honor husband, father
The 8,500 participants in the upcoming 26th annual Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk have had cancer affect friends or family in some way. Debbie Cohen of Marion will lace up her sneakers to honor her husband Adam, who passed away in 2010 from brain cancer.
Cohen and her two daughters will join more than half a dozen tri-town residents who will walk parts of the Boston Marathon Route for the fundraiser.
The event is the largest single-day event to support patient care and cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Since starting in 1989 the walk has raised more than $100 million.
This is Cohen’s third year participating in the walk. Her children Lauren, 8, and Hailey, 10, have joined her the past two years to walk the three-mile route. This year, the family plans to walk the five-mile route.
“It’s emotional for us. We are celebrating and honoring people we know who are close friends and family who have had cancer and survived,” she said. “But we’re also remembering someone who was an important part of our family who is no longer here.”
Her husband Adam was an English professor at UMass Dartmouth. In 2008, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. During his two-year battle, Debbie said she was grateful for the care he received at Dana-Farber.
She said it’s important for her family to be involved in the Jimmy Fund Walk.
“I have such gratitude for everyone who donates for the walk,” she said. “Dana-Farber is a world-class facility. I know a lot of people who in debt to it for saving their lives. Walking is a way for me and my children to repay them.”
Cohen’s brother and sister-in-law have walked the entire 26.2 marathon course starting in Hopkinton for the past two years.
To participate, all walkers must raise a minimum of $300, and walkers 12 years old and younger must raise at least $100. This year’s event is expected to bring in more than $7.5 million for the Jimmy Fund.
Donations can be made online at www.JimmyFundWalk.org.
To donate to Cohen’s team specifically, visit her homepage at www.jimmyfundwalk.org/2014/debcohen. Donations can be made after the walk.
Cohen said any and all donations, no matter how large or small, are welcome in the fight against cancer.
“It really does affect so many people,” she said. “Everybody knows somebody who has had cancer. It’s an illness everyone identifies with.”
