A letter from Elyse Topp-Poirier

Fri 04/15/2005 9:37 AM
Hello Everyone,
As many of you know, I have been running the Boston Marathon for the past two years to support causes that are very important in my life. In 2003, I ran to support The Home for Little Wanderers, a place very special to my family as it is the agency through wich my parents adopted me. Then last year, I decided to run the marathon to support Children’s Hospital. Another place very close to my heart as my mother has worked there for 39 years and I have volunteered and worked there seeing many people touched by the magic the doctors work on a daily basis.
Children’s has this wonderful program where runners are paired with patients as inspiration for their run. When I met my patient partner, Andy… my motivation to run The Boston Marathon changed completely. I have never been so inspired by one little boy and his family than I am by Andy, his parents and his little sister Sofia. Andy has a Primary Immune Defficiency and has spent more than 600 days of his 5 year old life in various hospitals in Mexico and the US. Andy and his family came to Children’s in 2001 and has been treated there ever since. This past fall, Andy’s little sister Sofia gave him her stem cells and bone marrow. This gave Andy the opportunity to have a healthy life free of Children’s Hospital stays.
When I finished the Marathon last year (in 90 degree heat) in honor of Andy, there was no better feeling. As many of you know, I injured my knee in February while training one weekend in the snow. It has been a struggle for the past 2 months whether or not to run Boston again knowing that I could further injure my knee. When I was about to give up last week, Andy’s dad offered to run the marathon for me and I was reminded of the amazing sacrifices that this family has made and continues to make for Andy.
So… THAT SAID… I will be running the first half of the Boston Marathon and meeting Andy and his family in Wellesley at the Children’s Hospital Cheering Section. I couldn’t let Andy down so I would like to ask all of you to help me out with your cheers but more importantly, help Children’s Hospital give kids like Andy a chance at a happy and healthy life.
To donate to my marathon campaign for Andy, go to
www.chtrust.org/kidsatheart and click on the sponsor a runner tab to enter my name.
Thanks in advance to all of you!
Love,
Elyse
Andy & Elyse @ Frog Pond, Boston MA. March 2004

Elyse 4 Andy website here.