I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at 14 and treated at Tomorrows Children’s in Hackensack, New Jersey. I was lucky to have extraordinary doctors, family, and community around me, and I’ve now been in remission for more than 30 years.
Even during treatment, I wanted to keep doing the things that made me feel like myself. I ran track and can still remember trying to run an 800-meter race after chemotherapy. I certainly wasn’t at my best, but I finished.
For many years, one of the lasting uncertainties from treatment was whether I would ever be able to become a father. Eventually, with the help of fertility treatment, my wife and I had our son. Becoming a dad has changed the way I think about survivorship. Thirty years is no longer just a number — it represents the life I’ve been fortunate enough to have because treatment worked.
This year, I’m running my first New York City Marathon with Team In Training (TNT) and raising money for Blood Cancer United. I’m doing it out of gratitude for the people and medicine that gave me the chance to grow up, and to help more children and families have that same chance — with better treatments, better support, and, hopefully, fewer long-term effects from treatment.
Running a marathon feels like an appropriate way to celebrate how far I’ve been able to go.
Matt
Hodgkin lymphoma (HL)
