Stepping up for a cure

LYNN – This year’s North Shore Cancer Walk is giving Patrick Delulis a bittersweet feeling.Sunday may be the 25th anniversary of the walk, but it’ll be his first since he lost his father last Thanksgiving after a 17-year fight against leukemia.Not only that, it’ll be 15 years this August since his wife, Susan, died from cancer. Since then, he and his sons have walked the 6.2-mile (10k) course that goes from Salem Willows to the campus of Salem State and back.”This walk has become a part of our culture,” Delulis said. “We’re a large family and this gives us a chance to come together and do something positive, while remembering those loved ones that we’ve lost.”His father, John, underwent a bone marrow transplant at the age of 65 and returned to work at the construction company until the age of 72, when he required a second transplant.Delulis and his family have raised thousands of dollars walking, but it doesn’t end there. The company is also a corporate sponsor, and Delulis takes pride in the fact that his team generally finishes in the Top 5 for its fundraising efforts.”We started with a DeIulis Brother’s team in the third year of the walk, so we’ve been doing it for a long time,” said Patrick DeIulis.Money raised from the walk will support the construction of the new inpatient oncology unit at North Shore Medical Center as well as wellness services and support programs at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers.DeIulis said, “As a vendor we’ve been doing contract work for the medical center since the 80’s, we have a long relationship that goes back several decades.”Prior to becoming amongst the ranks of top contractors in eastern Massachusetts, the first generation of the DeIulis family emigrated to the United States from Italy over half a century ago. In 1958, John Delulis, along with his older brother, Mario, founded what is now DeIulis Brothers Construction.Over time, the DeIulis family, along with the family business has grown substantially through the generations that have come beforehand.