MARATHON MAN: CANCER SURVIVOR RUNS TO HELP OTHERS
Mark Porter runs along South Central Avenue in Quincy. (AMELIA KUNHARDT/The Patriot Ledger)
By ELENI HIMARAS
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY – Mark Porter believes the only reason he was able to beat cancer was the people who went before him to fight for a cure.

Now that his cancer is in remission, Porter, 38, is intent on becoming one of those people. He is in training for the Boston Marathon and will run as a member of the Children’s Hospital Boston Miles for Miracles team. He is raising money and awareness so that others, particularly children, diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease – as he was more than a year ago – have a better shot at surviving.
‘‘You have to embrace every day like it could be your last; the fact that I’m able to do the Boston Marathon is a blessing,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not a big sacrifice to do what I’m doing. It’s a bonus, if anything.’’
A native of Ireland who moved to Quincy in the late 1980s, Porter hasn’t lost his brogue or his appreciation for life.
A year ago this month, he went into the hospital for what he thought was going to be routine surgery to remove a piece of metal from his stomach (he says no one knows how it got there). Doctors found something else: cancer.
After surgery to remove some of his colon, he underwent chemotherapy.
‘‘It’s like everything else: There’s some things you can control and some things you can’t and you just have to handle it as best you can,’’ Porter said of the past year.
In July, he raised nearly $6,500 to help a friend in the Pan-Mass Challenge, a 190-mile bike ride across Massachusetts for the Jimmy Fund. A few months later, he saw an ad in a YMCA brochure for the Boston Marathon and decided to give it a try. He has been training since September and is up to 22 miles and going strong.
As a member of the Miles for Miracles team, Porter has been paired with a patient partner. Andy Trevino, 6, of Newton, is being treated for a rare gene mutation that has led to a life-threatening condition called primary immune deficiency. He has spent nearly one-third of his life – about 650 days – at Children’s Hospital in Boston.
In October 2004, Andy underwent a stem cell transplant that was made possible by the birth the previous March of his sister, Sophia. Her cells were used in the transplant and Andy’s doctors say it was a success.
Porter says Andy is a great inspiration.
‘‘It was very humbling. People think they’ve got problems and issues but when you see some of the problems and issues these kids have it would bring a tear to your eye,’’ he said.
He said being a part of the team at Children’s Hospital has given him a new appreciation for what the people who work there do each day.
‘‘I don’t know how they do it. To look at children every day and know some will live and some will die … but that doesn’t stop them,’’ he said.
Porter is married with three young children and said that being a father made it even more difficult to see the daily struggles of children at the hospital.
‘‘Children are children. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what they’re thinking but I think they realized how good they have it,’’ he said, recalling when his own children met Andy.
To support Porter’s run for Children’s Hospital, visit www.chtrust.org/bostonmarathon and click on ‘‘Sponsor a Runner,’’ or call 617-355-6890.
Eleni Himaras may be reached at ehimaras@ledger.com .
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Wednesday, March 08, 2006