Hoboken Runner: My Inspiring Best Friend Needs A Prosthetic Leg

HOBOKEN, NJ — More than 50,000 athletes are expected to take part in the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 5. But when Hoboken resident Annmarie Mercieri takes her first steps in the iconic marathon, it will be for a unique cause: a prosthetic leg for her friend.

Mercieri, 31, is taking part in the run as part of a fundraiser for her best friend of 20 years, Krista Selnau, who lost her left leg when she was 10 years old to osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer.

Frustrated that Selnau was denied the insurance money to afford a prosthetic limb - but inspired by her good friend’s cancer struggle - Mercieri launched an GoFundMe campaign to help raise the funds to take matters into their own hands.

As of Tuesday, the fundraiser has raised more than $6,000 of the $18,000 needed. See the campaign or make a donation here.

Mercieri said that she hopes that with the purchase of a new leg, Selnau will be able to join her next year in the 2018 marathon. And in the meanwhile, Selnau will be at the finish line cheering her friend on.

That’s the sort of mindset that exemplifies her best friend’s indominable spirit, Mercieri said.

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“People often tell me that it must have been difficult losing a leg,” Selnau writes. “But the truth is, it wasn’t.”

Selnau said:

“My orthopedic surgeon presented my family and I with two scenarios: continue life with my badly damaged leg and more surgeries or amputate. I was shown a picture of a woman running with a prosthetic leg - a cool blade where her foot had been - and I was told that anything was possible. I thought about it. I had been in a wheelchair for over a year. I had tried – unsuccessfully – to walk again with the help of a brace. I was often in pain and uncomfortable. I knew what I wanted: I wanted to go to school and be with my friends; I wanted to leave behind the hospital; I wanted to play and ride my bike and run through my backyard. I wanted to live. The decision was easy and the decision was mine: I would amputate.

“Almost twenty years have passed since my amputation. I went to law school and learned to use the law to advance social justice causes. I fought on behalf of children with cancer and homeless veterans. I volunteered for more than a decade at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a camp in Ashford, Connecticut for children with serious and life-threatening illness, a very special place that supported me as a child. I taught myself to climb, kayak and ski. I lived fully every day.

“Now, I have a new goal. I want to learn to run again with my own cool blade.”

Read Selnau’s full story here.

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Main photo courtesy of New York Road Runners / Rubenstein