Melrose’s Molly McGunigle Running 2014 Boston Marathon For Her Niece Colleen

The following was submitted by Molly McGunigle, of Melrose.

Name: Marlene “Molly” McGunigle

Age: 47

Goal: Hoping to break a 4-hour marathon.

Reason for running: I am running for Boston Children's Hospital’s marathon team. My patient partner is my niece Colleen Facey.

April will be the 20th anniversary since my last marathon. But that is not why I am running this year, my 4 1/2 year old niece, Colleen Facey, is my inspiration.

Colleen has faced many challenges and hurdles in her short life. In her first 9 months, she spent 17 days in the Pediatric ICU. She was constantly getting respiratory illnesses due to a Laryngeal cleft in her throat. She is also farsighted so she was given her first pair of pink glasses at 9 months! She was styling :)

It was discovered that Colleen was hard of hearing because of the fluids in her ears so she has had tubes in her ears multiple times. And she fights Hypotonia, which is very low muscle tone, and, with a lot of hard work and PT, she began walking at 2 1/2 and has not stopped moving since.  

I have been training with the BCH marathon team over the past 15 weeks and it has been inspirational in many ways. Each week, a runner dedicates the training run to their patient partner.

It is truly amazing what Children's has done for other children. Some of the stories do not always end positively but the depth of feeling that the parents have about how Children's helped them and their loved one is amazing.

Please visit my Personal Page to be learn about all the wonderful things BCH has done for my niece and does for countless others. We are so blessed to have this wonderful institution so close to home. Please help me help them to do more wonderful things for Colleen and other children.

Fundraising link: http://www.milesformiracles.org/site/TR/Events/BostonMarathon?px=1003620&pg=personal&fr_id=1040

The 63 Melrose Residents Running the 2014 Boston Marathon >>