Wayland Teen Raising Money After Shrewsbury Friend's Cancer Diagnosis

WAYLAND, MA — A Wayland High School basketball player is stepping up to help a friend from a another town.

Marcus Whelton is aiming to compete in the November A Shot For Life event, a 24-hour basketball shoot-out that raises money for cancer research at Mass General Hospital in Boston.

Whelton is trying to raise $2,000 from local residents for the event in honor of a friend from Shrewsbury who Whelton said was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma — a type of bone cancer.

"I have pledged to raise at minimum $1,000 in contributions to be donated to Dr. Curry’s cancer research lab at Mass General Hospital (where my friend is currently situated)," Whelton said in a recent Facebook post.

As of Tuesday, Whelton's fundraiser was about 80 percent toward a $2,000 goal. Whelton is also the owner of Wayland Student-Athlete, a local business that assigns odd jobs to local students.

During the 2022 A Shot For Life event, student players of all skill levels will come together at the Starland Sportsplex in Hanover and play basketball for 24 hours. That length of time is meant to symbolize the long struggle cancer patients typically face, according to the organization.

All donations go to Mass General cancer research. A Shot For Life has a goal of raising at least $100,000 at this year's event.