Over a decade later, Rochester woman continues friend’s cancer research fundraising legacy
Most of Team SuPernice at the 2025 walk. Photo source: Michael Sparks Keegan
From left: Team SuPernice members Kara Pernice, Donna Tocci, Sue Kindregan and Deborah Duffy smile before boarding a bus to Hopkinton in 2015. Photos source: Donna Tocci
Laura Keegan cheers for Tocci along the course near Boston College in 2017. 
From left: Tocci, and Susan's sisters Kara Pernice and Debora Duffy try to cool off during their walk in 2017. 
From left: Tocci, Kara Pernice, Susan's parents, Deborah Duffy and Sue Kindregan smile together before the team heads to the walk in 2019.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the team started walking the Falmouth bike path, and completed the half marathon distance in 2022.
Most of Team SuPernice at the 2025 walk. Photo source: Michael Sparks Keegan
From left: Team SuPernice members Kara Pernice, Donna Tocci, Sue Kindregan and Deborah Duffy smile before boarding a bus to Hopkinton in 2015. Photos source: Donna Tocci
Laura Keegan cheers for Tocci along the course near Boston College in 2017.
From left: Tocci, and Susan's sisters Kara Pernice and Debora Duffy try to cool off during their walk in 2017.
From left: Tocci, Kara Pernice, Susan's parents, Deborah Duffy and Sue Kindregan smile together before the team heads to the walk in 2019.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the team started walking the Falmouth bike path, and completed the half marathon distance in 2022.
ROCHESTER — In the last 10 years, Donna Tocci has walked countless steps and helped raise over $80,000 in memory of a friend as part of the Jimmy Fund Walk for Dana-Farber.
Tocci is the captain of Team SuPernice, named after her late friend Susan Pernice, and leads a small group of walkers as they fundraise for the research center that helped Pernice go into cancer remission.
The two women met through the Boston Athletic Association, where they both volunteered, and became good friends. Tocci described Pernice as “a force of nature in the best way possible,” always ready to help people or make them feel welcome.
The Jimmy Fund Walk has a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon course each year. In 2014, Pernice wanted to walk the full marathon to celebrate 20 years of being cancer-free. She received treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and was committed to raising funds and awareness for it after she went into remission.
Tocci agreed to walk all 26.2 miles with her friend, but “was thinking I have a whole year to come up with a better way to celebrate with her.”
Pernice died in 2015 — from a heart condition, not cancer — and Tocci knew she had to walk the marathon in honor of her friend.
In the years since, the distance she chooses has varied but her commitment to fundraising has not.
“It's always about keeping Susan's memory and her legacy alive,” Tocci said. “In addition to that, over the years we've all had cancer touch our families — our friends, our chosen families, our colleagues.”
Tocci said her friend loved the team’s name, because it could also be read as “super nice.”
“Her motto in life was ‘It's nice to be important, but it's important to be nice,’” Tocci said.
