Misstropolis

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Miles for Miracles

by Robin Hauck

Email to a friendPrint this article

“… When I walk into the lobby and down the halls of Children’s Hospital I always feel like I’ve been transported to an alternate universe where everyone is an angel and altruism trumps all pessimistic emotions…”

This was part of a note I sent out to friends and family, asking them to support me as part of the Miles for Miracles NYC Marathon team at Boston Children’s Hospital. I had no idea how vast, and at the same time how intimate, that “alternate universe” would become for me.

Deciding to run a marathon is like moving to the suburbs or going blond – you have to commit, period. You can’t waffle, even when it gets hard, which of course it does because it’s twenty six point two miles (or an hour from The Butcher Shop). But running to help children who suffer from rare, unpronounceable diseases and the doctors and nurses who save them, was like haveing Super Ultra Premium $5 a gallon gas in the tank the whole way – from day one of training to the last step over the finish line.

One of my most motivational teammates said that for her running on behalf of Children’s was “pure and simple inspiration.” Thinking about kids sitting in hospital beds, she said, kids who might never have a chance to run outside, let alone run a marathon, was reason enough. The other thing that motivates her is “the thought of one of my own kids with an illness with not enough research funding…“ That was enough to get her off her butt as she put it, running and raising money.

Another woman told me that she’ll never leave the Boston area specifically because of Children’s Hospital. “Our daughter has a rare bone marrow and pancreas disease and we spent the first six years of her life in and out of Children’s. I sit on the Board of Trustees for her disease support organization and this puts me in touch with many families around the country. I hear stories of kids getting misdiagnosed or worse, never diagnosed, in other hospitals that don’t have the high caliber hematology department that Children’s does…This hospital is a magnet for the best of the best - we wouldn’t go anywhere else.“

Our team had two captains who organized training runs and sent pep talk emails every week, and a contact at the hospital who made sure we got our money in on time and kept our minds on why we were running. Our team patient was a young boy with a rare brain disease called Moyamoya. His life had been saved by a Children’s Hospital physician who was one of the only doctors in the world with experience in treating the disease. Sore knee, tight hip, busy schedule - what?! Suddenly our challenge didn’t seem so challenging.

What’s a five hour jog compared to a lifetime of battling childhood illness? There’s lots of room in the alternative universe… maybe it’s time to turn your miles into miracles too.

If you are interested in learning more about being a part of one of the Boston Children’s Hospital Miles for Miracles Teams, click here.