Charity runners take on others’ uphill battles
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | April 16, 2006
In the Boston Marathon tomorrow, many runners will strive to set a personal best time. Others among the approximately 20,000 will set out simply to conquer the distance. And some 1,200 will endure the grueling 26.2 miles for a good cause, raising more than $7 million for charitable groups large and small.
South of Boston, seven Hingham mothers will tackle the distance to raise $25,000 to expand a Weymouth homeless shelter. Sarah Coughlin of Duxbury, in remission from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, will run as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Group (see separate story). And up the road in Norwell, Tim Driscoll hopes to raise $70,000 for the Jett Foundation, a Pembroke-based group working to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder that afflicts Driscoll’s two young nephews.
Mark Porter of Quincy, who is running for Children’s Hospital Boston, also is inspired by the courage of a child — a young Newton boy named Andy Trevino, who is Porter’s ”patient partner” in the hospital’s charity marathon program that over the years has raised more than $5 million.
That the two would be linked by a Boston institution and longstanding tradition is remarkable in itself. Porter, 38, is an immigrant from Ireland; little Andy, not yet of school age, is from Mexico. But one thing brought them together: Both are survivors.
For nearly two of his first five years, Andy slept in hospital beds, battling a rare immune deficiency that left him all but defenseless against infections such as pneumonia and meningitis. Doctor after doctor told Andy’s parents their son would die young.
But in April 2001, when Andres and Paulina Trevino heard that a specialist in Boston might help, they immediately left their home and family in Mexico City and went straight from the airport to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital around midnight, carrying only a small suitcase and stroller. They slept in the hospital for weeks while Andy took a cocktail of antibiotics.
Doctors determined that Andy had a genetic disorder, and said the best treatment was a stem-cell transplant. With long odds against finding a suitable donor, the Trevinos decided to have a second child through in vitro fertilization, screening embryos before implantation for a genetic match that could replace Andy’s diseased cells with healthy ones. Two years ago, their second child, Sofia, was born to save their first.
Now Andy is a healthy 6-year-old who enjoys Xbox video games and tousling his sister’s hair. And tomorrow, he will watch the race just down the road from his Newton home and cheer on Porter, who was motivated to run after recovering last spring from successful colon cancer treatment.
”When I was lying in the hospital, I realized that I was benefiting from all these advances, all the research,” Porter said in a native brogue as he smiled at the sight of Andy and Sofia playing together. ”I told myself that when I got better, I would do something to help others, in some small way.”
Porter had never run at all, and the first 3-mile training run left him feeling like he had been ”beaten with a baseball bat.” But he steadily improved, gradually extending his weekly long run to 22 miles. He met the Trevinos at a banquet in December and was moved by Andy’s courage in the face of adversity, a resolve he summons when the miles get difficult.
”He is so tough; it was a very touching experience,” said Porter, whose brother-in-law died of stomach cancer in 2004 at age 46. ”When I’m running up a hill, cursing and complaining, I realize I don’t really have that much to complain about. It makes it harder to stop, because these guys [the patients] can’t stop.”
Andres and Paulina Trevino now reflect upon Andy’s health struggles with immense relief tinged by years of constant worry. The couple said that it was very hard to leave their home in Mexico City, but that they refused to abandon hope despite bleak prognoses. Devout Catholics, the couple also wrestled with moral reservations over genetic screening and in vitro fertilization, believing the discarded embryos represented human life. Andres Trevino, 34, said the procedure sounded like ”science fiction,” but their need to save their son overcame their ethical qualms. Six months after her birth, Sofia underwent a successful stem-cell procedure to give Andy a healthy immune system.
”We were looking at him, so sick, always, and it wasn’t a hard decision,” Andres Trevino said. ”Some people say it’s playing God, but I believe it’s a miracle.”
Looking lovingly at her two children, Paulina Trevino, 32, said Sofia’s birth was a double blessing. She has made Andy, and their family, healthy and whole, she said. ”They play, they fight, they kiss. They are normal, happy kids. It’s wonderful to see.”
Porter already has gathered more than $7,500 in pledges, and said he hoped for more. He said running 26.2 miles for a good cause is the least he can do.
”It doesn’t take a lot to pay them back a little.”
For more information about Porter and Trevino, visit www.mark4andy.com. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.