Salem Runners Participating in Boston Marathon Seek to Raise $30K for Cancer Research
The 2025 Boston Marathon, scheduled for Monday, April 21, will have over 30,000 official entrants. More than 500 runners from across the nation and around the world will run to raise funds for charity, raising approximately $8.5 million for cancer research.
Among those participating as invitational runners this year are David Olsen, 23, and Kelly Verrill, 40, both from Salem, New Hampshire. As invitational runners, both are required to raise $10,000, but they have each pledged to raise $15,000 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The pair have until May to meet their fundraising goals.
Olsen, a recent graduate of St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, took up running after he missed the sense of community he enjoyed from participating in athletics in college.
“I thought it’d be cool now that I had more time on my hands to push the limits and see how far I could run,” he said in an interview with The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Massachusetts. Participating in running inspired him to do more with the activity, and he started to research local and national charities that he could support through running.
“It really came down to the fact that we all know someone battling cancer,” he said about why he chose Dana-Farber. “Especially as we grow up and go into the ‘real world,’ you come face to face with it a lot more, and it becomes more of a reality.”
Verrill, a former oncology nurse for Dana-Farber, ran the Boston Marathon in 2016 and 2017 as part of Dana-Farber’s running team. She picked up running in her late 20s when a co-worker and cancer survivor convinced her to participate in running a half marathon for charity.
“The fans along the whole 26 miles [of the Boston Marathon] are constant,” she said. “You’re entertained, and you also feel supported by all of these strangers and just the rush, the adrenaline, it’s really the entire race because of all the fans and the excitement and the hype.”
To donate to Dana-Farber’s fundraising challenge, visit runDFMC.org or call 617-632-1970.