I joined the MMRF endurance events team as an events manager in January 2018 however; my involvement with the MMRF began a few years prior.

My mom is a multiple myeloma patient and my dad and I signed up to run the 2016 NYC Marathon in her name for the MMRF a year after she began treatment. The MMRF pushed us out of my comfort zone, forced us to share what our family was going through with friends, family, and co-workers, something that had been kept private previously. Being on a team and working with an organization that inspires true hope gave my family and I a new outlook on my mom’s treatment.

The following January we heard the good news that my mom was in remission, we found this out just a few days before I was accepted on the 2017 MM4MM Mt. Fuji hike. I truly believe the awareness we stirred up for my mom’s condition, and the prayers that followed helped her to respond positively to treatment and continue to do so, along with thanks to the clinical trial she is in at Dana Farber proudly funded by the MMRF.

In a family where there is a daunting diagnosis, an elephant in the room so to speak, I know first-hand how important the MMRF is, the work they do, the hope they inspire, not just for patients but for the caregivers as well.

I have found my life’s calling and am proud and honored to be working for the MMRF, an organization that has already given me so much. To say I am excited to lead my first Moving Mountains for Multiple Myeloma hike is an understatement. I could not be more honored to hike alongside the team we have put together; I know they will walk away from this experience changed for the better, as I have been.