Keep Punching Raises $27,000 for Brain Cancer Research and Patient Support at Third Annual 5K, 1-Mile Run and Kids Fun Races

Keep Punching, Inc., a Baltimore-based 501c(3) non-profit organization that strives to support patients, healthcare providers and researchers in their fight to prevent and eradicate brain cancer, raised $27,000 at its Third Annual 5K, One-Mile Run and Kids Fun Races, held on Saturday, May 22, at Goucher College. The organization immediately donated $25,000 of the raised funds to Columbia University Medical Center in New York in a check presentation ceremony following the races.

Keep Punching was founded in 2013, during the last year of Pikesville-resident Daron Fisher’s battle with glioblastoma. Daron and his wife Beth struggled with the knowledge that while researchers continue to speculate about promising treatments for brain cancer, few receive the necessary funding to determine the treatments’ efficacy.

Columbia University Medical Center and Dr. Fabio Iwamoto were instrumental in Daron’s care, making both natural recipients of a grant generated by Keep Punching’s largest annual event.

Daron, a father of two (daughter Alana and son Emory), was an advertising copywriter at MGH, Inc., where his most high-profile project, the “Utz Girl/Mr. Boh” engagement billboard for Smyth Jewelers, achieved cultural icon status in Baltimore.

Keep Punching is unique in its three-pronged approach of addressing brain cancer, with funds raised from the races directly supporting patients, healthcare providers and researchers, through grants.

Patient support grants include funds for medical and lifestyle support equipment that may not be covered by medical insurance, such as mobility aids, bathroom and bedroom adaptive equipment and small exercise equipment.

Earlier this year, Keeping Punching launched a local medical center partnership by announcing a five-year, $25,000 grant to support the work of Dr. Mark Mishra at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

“Only three years after our start, it’s amazing to think of all of the lives Keep Punching has already touched, thanks in large part to hundreds of donations from participants in these annual races,” said Keep Punching Co-Founder Beth Fisher. “To raise $27,000 and then immediately donate $25,000 of it after this year’s races is what Daron envisioned when we started on this path to eradicating brain cancer three years ago.”

Keep Punching hosts additional fundraising events each year, including an annual New Year’s Eve plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Md. For more information about all Keep Punching events, please visit keeppunching.org/events.