Jim's name is in the paper! After getting 3rd place in his first 5k yesterday!
Meaghan's Run a success on short notice
The event, which started from Holy Trinity Church on Ridge Road, drew 800 runners and walkers.
Some of her friends cautioned it couldn't be done, but, in only three months time, Gail Wagner and others organized a race to increase awareness about lung cancer and raised thousands in the process.
The inspiration for the race is Meaghan Latone, 36, of Chili, a married mother of two diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2006.
Latone is a "very loving person," said Wagner, of Webster. "When you meet her, your heart goes out to her."
Wagner contacted Latone after reading an essay Latone wrote in a November edition of the Democrat and Chronicle about her desire to increase understanding about lung cancer.
Many believe people with lung cancer got the disease from smoking, which isn't always true, Latone wrote.
She said she is among many who contracted lung cancer from "environmental reasons" and not nicotine. What's needed, she advised, is more awareness about various types of cancer, not just breast cancer.
"There's ... other cancers that nobody even recognizes or knows about," Latone said.
Runner Jim Siena, 26, of Brighton saw a poster about the race/walk at his gym and got his friend Bunny Dugo, 24, of Brighton to run as well. Dugo's brother, Dan, has throat cancer.
Neither of them know Latone, but they participated in the event because "it's for a great cause, that's the added benefit," Dugo said.
Sarah Butler, 12, of Greece doesn't know Latone either, but she loves to run. Her grandmother, Patricia Valik, died from ovarian cancer in 2005. In May, Butler will participate in a breast cancer fundraiser run in Charlotte.
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