When Joe Whitney steps onto the starting line on April 20, he already knows what will carry him through the race.
Whitney, a dentist, was raised in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and has spent the last decade living in Boston’s South End.
This spring, the 38-year-old is running the Boston Marathon for the first time as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team.
Whitney lost both parents to cancer. His father, Robert, was diagnosed with bile duct cancer while Whitney was in dental school, and spent nearly a decade in treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before passing away in January 2023.
His mother, Kristen, and both of his older sisters, Sarah and Blair, have Cowden Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that significantly elevates the risk of developing multiple cancers and requires lifelong monitoring, Whitney said. Kristen was diagnosed with Stage Four endometrial cancer last summer and passed away in December, while Whitney had already begun his marathon training.
A Mass. native and runner since high school, Whitney said running the Boston Marathon has always been on his bucket list. When the opportunity came to run for Dana-Farber, he said, “it just felt on the nose.”
“Raising some money for an organization such as this felt like I had some control in the situation in a time where I didn’t feel like I had much control in my life,” Whitney said.
Since its founding in 1990, DFMC has raised over $140 million for cancer research and care at Dana-Farber, according to the organization’s website. This year, more than 500 runners are participating, making it the largest charity group in the race.
Jessica Abbott, the assistant vice president of the Jimmy Fund, the fundraising division of Dana-Farber, said the team is made up of cancer survivors, current patients, family members and friends.
“You can really connect with someone on a different level when they’ve been through something similar, or a loved one had a similar diagnosis,” she said. “[DFMC] has created such a sense of community.”
All funds raised through DFMC directly supports the Claudia Adams Barr Program, which funds early-stage cancer research, Abbott said. The program provides researchers with the resources to test innovative ideas, which can advance clinical applications and the results necessary to seek additional federal funding.
As federal cancer research funding has declined over the years, Abbott said, philanthropy is essential to filling that gap.
“It’s so critical to advancing the research,” Abbott said.
When his mother passed, Whitney and his family included his fundraising link in her obituary, and donations poured in.
Whitney said he was “blown away very quickly by the level of support” he received, and has far surpassed his initial fundraising goal, according to his DFMC page.
“I’m just one person on a team that has hundreds of people on it,” Whitney said. “The strength in this team is unmatched. It’s a pretty cool group of people.”
With his office 60 miles out of Boston, Whitney said his training consists mostly of late weeknight runs after his two young daughters are in bed.
The detail-oriented dentist in him, Whitney said, has come out in full force as he gets closer to race day. He tracks his splits, monitors his heart rate and pays close attention to his diet. When he crosses the starting line, though, he said he plans to let go of the numbers.
“I’m definitely going to be thinking of my parents the whole time,” he said. “If something’s hard, I just think of them.”
This story is part of a partnership between The Independent Newspaper Group and Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.