Lifelong Whitman resident Heather Fernald is a woman on a mission.
While she has a fundraising goal of $1,500 – the Pacesetter Goal – when she again takes part in the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk on Sunday, Oct. 1, she said this week that she’d really like to double that.
“I would dream of doubling that,” she said.
When asked where fundraising sits at the moment, she let out an ironic chuckle and said, “Like, $350.”
“My goal is $3,000 and we can say I’m halfway,” she laughed. “Most people end up donating the last couple of weeks.”
Besides trying to fit in more training and boosting her fundraising efforts, she is also devoted to the color pink because of their support for breast cancer fundraising, she said, noting people walk to support research in all forms of the disease.
“She’s fantastic,” Heather said of her mother’s condition. “She uses a Rolator because outside of the house she’s nervous.” Chemotherapy has left her mom occasionally with a situation where her legs go out from under her.
Her mom, who had back surgery two years before she was diagnosed with cancer, also makes sure to keep up with her exercises.
“She gets a couple thousands of steps a day,” she said.
While her mom is an inspiration, Heather said she doesn’t train for the walk, but she’s kicked it up a notch and is back at the gym three days a week, doing a lot of cardio on the treadmill.
With Heather’s work schedule, fundraising has proven challenging, but she does a lot of it through Facebook Fundraising. And she also does some fundraising on the Whitman 02382 Facebook site, where she has received good encouragement and some donations, too.
“I try not to be too pushy – that’s my problem,” she said, noting she ads posts from her training walks to keep interest fresh.
Fernald has participated in the walk, presented by Hyundai, five times before in honor of her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last year the walk returned to the Marathon route after two years of “Walk Your Way” events at participants’ homes.
She did hers around town, receiving some friendly horn-beeps and waves, but it doesn’t compare to the Marathon route walk.
“The support from the people just along the route, it’s more encouraging,” she said.
An added boost for this year is that participants will end the route at Fenway Park because of construction going on at Copley.
“My mother is my main reason I walk,” Heather wrote in an announcement run by the Whitman-Hanson Express on Aug. 10. “She is a Breast Cancer Survivor thanks to Dana-Farber and, of course, her own strength and courage!”
Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 and was treated at Dana-Farber.
“I’ve been going there since I was in my early 20s,” Heather said of the
preventive care she has received there herself. “They were just so amazing. They’re so amazing to the family members.”
She said Dana-Farber staff have kept up with her on how she’s training for the Marathon walk and have people who visit patient while they undergo treatments and some of the items in the center’s gift shop are free for patients.
Her mom was practical to the soft, handmade hats available. A crafter herself, who creates inspirational rocks to sell at craft fairs. Fernald left about 40 or so of the message stones at the shop for other families when he mother was released.
“The terrible part, but the amazing part is that so many people from all over the world come here for top-of-the-line care,” Heather said.
Heather is the Team Captain of the Journey For Janice team and hopes to raise $1,500.
She said her mother still goes to Dana-Farber for checkups and any needed treatments.
“She doesn’t mind going to the doctor’s when she has to go,” heather said.
“It’s a life-long thing now,” she said. “So [Dana-Farber] is a life-long extended family. It’s not necessarily the family you want, but if you have to have one, they’re really the one to have.”
The 2023 Jimmy Fund Walk will take place on Sunday, October 1, and raises funds to support all forms of adult and pediatric patient care and cancer research at the nation’s premier cancer center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Whether participating for themselves, loved ones, neighbors, or co-workers, each walker shares a common purpose: to defy cancer and support breakthroughs that will benefit cancer patients around the world.
Participants have the flexibility to choose from four distance options: 5K walk (from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Longwood Medical campus), 10K walk (from Newton), Half Marathon walk (from Wellesley) or Marathon walk (from Hopkinton). Walkers can also participate virtually by “walking their way” from wherever they are most comfortable—whether that be in their neighborhood, on a favorite hiking trail, or on a treadmill at home.
The Jimmy Fund Walk has raised more than $167 million for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in its 34-year history. The 2023 Walk will be held during the Jimmy Fund’s 75th anniversary year and will aim to raise $9 million in the effort to prevent, treat, and defy cancer. To support Heather’s walk go to http.//danafarber.jimmyfund.org/goto/Journeyforjanice.
