A Haverhill High School graduate aims to raise $10,000 for cancer research ahead of next year’s Boston Marathon.
Jillian Lemieux, a lifelong runner and cancer survivor turned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute employee, has raised more than $2,500 of her $10,000 goal for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for research and development on new treatments for the disease. During high school, Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a rare cancer that affects the lymphatic and immune systems.
“I received six months of treatment at Dana-Farber,” she told WHAV. “That led me back to why I started working there too because I received such amazing care there and the doctors and everyone were genuinely so nice. It’s just a special place so it all came full circle, so this feels like the right time to try to take on the marathon.”
Paired with her experience, Lemieux said her late mother’s experience in the 1980s with the same type of cancer and later breast cancer inspired her involvement in helping cancer patients.
“They didn’t really have the same type of medical knowledge and research. They didn’t know the right way to treat her back then. So, they treated her with a lot of radiation,” she said. “They make sure to not over-radiate but she was over-radiated so they treated her lymphoma when she was young and cancer free for a long time, but as a result of being over-radiated, she developed breast cancer later in life.”
Lemieux said that it is “frustrating to know” that had her mother received the same treatment as her, she “likely wouldn’t have developed another type of cancer.”
“I was only able to receive the type of care I got because of medical advancement and research which is a result of trials that she did. In that way, it’s a little nice to know it contributed to me receiving good care but it also is unfortunate as well,” she said.
To train for her marathon, Lemieux said her friend and former coach at Haverhill High School, Michael Maguire, created a training regimen for her. During her time running for HHS track and field and cross country, she said Maguire not only cared about his team’s athletic prowess, but also “just cared” about teammates personally.
“When I was getting diagnosed, he was very supportive,” she said.” I remember it was right around the time we had a state meet. I had just had my biopsy a week before and he kept telling me ‘You don’t have to run if you’re not feeling good,’ but of course I didn’t let it stop me and so I did. It was tough, but he always supported what I wanted to do.”
She added, “When I was getting treatments, I think because I was a teenager I didn’t want people my age to know a lot about it or to see me differently because I had cancer, I think it was the age I was at, I was so concerned with fitting in and having my normal teenage years, but I remember I would try to do anything to have my normal routine down, so Mags, coach Maguire, he let me come back to help run the team.”
Lemieux, who has run 13.1-mile half marathons in the past, said her regimen has consisted of several shorter five to six miles runs as she works up to the 26.2-mile marathon.
Lemieux will run the marathon on April 21. Donations may be made online here.
Lemieux is scheduled to appear live Wednesday morning at 8:45 on “Win for Breakfast.”