Stephanie O’Leary will cross the Boston Marathon finish line for a fifth and final time on April 20.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow resident Stephanie O’Leary is hanging up the laces after this year’s Boston Marathon on April 20.
She’s run for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team the last five years.
The team is running for its 37th year, having raised more than $140 million since 1990 and $8.75 million this year for Dana-Farber’s Claudia Adams Barr program in innovative basic cancer research. Over 500 teammates from across the entire world will race this time around.
Runners on the team include cancer survivors and patients and family and friends of those who have been affected by cancer.
O’Leary joined the team after a good friend of hers had all of her breast cancer treatment done with Dana-Farber. She has raised over $100,000 for the organization over the past five years.
“I thought it would be a really cool thing to do, you know, kind of help the hospital that treated my friends and check something off my bucket list,” O’Leary said. “I thought I’d be a one and done marathoner, but here we are five years later.”
Each team member must also fulfill a basic fundraising commitment, which is the case for every runner among the various charity teams. Invitational runners are those who receive entry from Dana-Farber and must raise at least $12,000. Own entry runners are those who have joined the DFMC team after obtaining their own entry and must raise at least $4,000.
O’Leary has raised $18,757 so far this year out of her $20,000 goal. She said she is “very lucky and fortunate to have very generous friends, family, coworkers and people in the community” that have supported her.
“I think most people have been consistent donors for me since I started and have really motivated me to reach that milestone of five years and $100,000,” O’Leary said. “Everyone’s life is touched by cancer, whether it be a family member, friend or a colleague. I think it’s a really tangible way for people to think they’re making an impact and, you know, cancer protocols all over the world are developed at Dana-Farber, so it’s a really great impact to have.”
She said that running is secondary when it comes to marathon day and that it’s really about the people she meets along the way.
“You’re running alongside patients that have stage four cancer, you’re running alongside, you know, parents that have lost children, often very, very young,” O’Leary said. “You’re running alongside people that have lost parents and spouses and friends, that it really changes your perspective on the world, and everyday stresses don’t really seem as big.”
She said that Dana-Farber asked in her second year to have a patient partner, which is where the runners are matched with a child from the Jimmy Fund. She was paired with a 4-year-old girl with a complex and aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“You kind of cheer each other on through treatment, through the marathon, and it’s really a bond,” O’Leary said. “She endured two and a half years and very intensive treatment, and she has been declared cancer free. We’re really shooting for her five years remaining cancer free to really officially be in that remission stafe, but she’s now a really happy first grader. That was a really tangible, like, personal impact, being paired with her.”
O’Leary said retiring from the team is really bittersweet because “the miles and the friends that you meet during the marathon training are so incredible. She added that she would encourage anyone who has the desire to give back or run in the marathon to “just go for it.”
“It’s taught me to be very resilient,” O’Leary said. “After running for a couple hours and you realize you’re halfway there, it can be a little bit difficult, but you hear people in the crowd just screaming, ‘Dana-Farber’ with their Boston accents, and it really gives you the motivation to keep going, and when you’re a patient partner and you have a child waiting for you at the finish line to cheer you on, you have to get there. The muscle soreness and the pain that is running the marathon is nothing to what these patients have to endure, so using their inner strength and motivation to get there is really great.”
She recalled a story from the 2025 Boston Marathon where someone hopped the barricade in Wellesley and ran with her for around 100 yards, sobbing, and said “thank you for raising the money, because it’s the research that kept my dad alive for 10 more years.”
People can support O’Leary’s fundraiser at danafarber.jimmyfund.org by selecting the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge link and searching her name in the “donate now” section.
