The Walk/Run for Friends of Karen at The Long Island Marathon

John Mitty Thursday, May 2, 2013

The Walk/Run for Friends of Karen at The Long Island Marathon

Team Comes Together to Help Children Diagnosed with Cancer and Other Life-threatening Illnesses

EAST MEADOW, NY - More than 275 walkers and runners will be among the nearly 10,000 participants expected at this weekend’s Long Island Marathon supporting Friends of Karen, an organization that helps families with children diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Wearing bright neon yellow team shirts and celebrating their 7^th year of participation in the Long Island Marathon, the team, aptly called The Walk/Run for Friends of Karen, was the brainchild of one former Friends of Karen mother of four children, whose son Luke was diagnosed with Leukemia weeks after his first birthday.

This year’s participants for the Walk-Run for Friends of Karen are chock-full of inspiring stories: 

• Families with critically-ill children
• Athletes with special challenges
• Corporate employees
• Caring community members
• Luke, now 11 years old, who will run the Saturday 5K with his mom and older brother Patrick

Funds raised from the Walk-Run will directly benefit families who are assisted by Friends of Karen’s Family Support program which helps with household bills, health insurance and medical co-payments prescriptions, hospital lodging costs, transportation to and from medical treatments and so much more. Since 1978, Friends of Karen has been providing emotional, financial and advocacy support for children with a life-threatening illness and their families in order to keep them stable, functioning and able to cope. The organization has helped more than 12,400 children in the New York tri-state region.

“The compassion and support for the work we do is true testament of humanity,” said Nancy Mariano, Regional Director of Friends of Karen. “Our team continues to grow each year and we love to share that moment of crossing the finish line together, said Nancy Mariano, Regional Director of Friends of Karen, knowing it is for the hundreds of children like Luke we help every day.”

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Friends of Karen began in 1978 when family friends came to the aid of a couple and their 16-year-old daughter, Karen, who was terminally ill.  A fund-raising campaign for medical and other costs enabled Karen to spend her precious last days at home surrounded by loving family and friends.  More than 35 years later, Friends of Karen has expanded to a tri-state children’s charity that serves families with a child from birth to 21 who are diagnosed with cancer or another life-threatening illness.  Last year, 1,375 children benefitted from Friends of Karen’s services.

jmitty@longislandyellowpages.com

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