Two local cancer-fighting angels will trade their halos for running shoes to make the 30th annual North Shore Cancer Walk a success.
Tammy Choquette and her sister-in-law, Debby Choquette, are the co-captains of Dolly’s Angels, a walking team that has taken part in the annual walk since 2016.
The Walk raises money to support services offered by Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, including genetic counseling, clinical trials, palliative care, support groups, nutrition and other in-person and virtual wellness services.
Coronavirus has reshaped the Walk from one-day event to a virtual celebration on Sept. 13 preceded by individuals and teams conducting their own walks. Teams are asked to walk a 6.2 mile course any time prior to Sept. 13.
Dolly’s Angels has raised more than $12,600 during the past three years and set a goal to raise $3,000 this year. Coronavirus social distancing restrictions ramped up the fundraising challenge this year.
“We usually host a fundraiser at Bertucci’s, but because of the virus we weren’t able to do it this year,” said Debby Choquette.
Her sister-in-law added: “Fundraising has been really difficult this year. It is hard to ask people for money when so many aren’t working.”
Dolly’s Angels is named in memory of Tammy’s mother and Debby’s mother-in-law, Dolly Choquette, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer that metastasized to her liver.
The woman who Tammy said “never complained, even when she had to shave her head,” lived for five years after her diagnosis. Choquette died in 2013. The average survival rate is three years for liver cancer.
“My mother received treatment at Salem Hospital and then at the Cancer Center in Danvers once it was built,” said Tammy Choquette. “Everyone at both facilities took such good care of her. They are the kindest people. You have to be a special person to do that work every day.”
Raising $3,000 for the Walk is important to Dolly’s Angels because every individual, team, or organization that raises or donates $3,000 or more receives a brick in the Healing Garden at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center in Danvers.
The bricks are inscribed to honor or memorialize a loved one and are placed along the paths and flower beds. Five bricks in the garden mark the team’s previous fundraising success and cancer-fighting commitment.
The first one was inscribed in their mother’s memory. Subsequent bricks honor Dolly’s brother, Edward Curcio, a retired Lynn police sergeant who died from sinus cancer while Dolly was fighting her own battle; Patricia Bartlett, a friend of Dolly’s from Lynn; Debby’s friend, Scott Ubele and Harvey and Nina Mintzer, the parents of one of Tammy’s friends.
Money raised during this year’s Walk will help pay for a sophisticated scope to provide superior magnification for complex oncology surgeries at NSMC Salem Hospital.
To learn more about the 2020 Virtual North Shore Cancer WALK go to www.NorthShoreCancerWALK.org. To support Dolly’s Angels go to https://nsmc.rallybound.org/Team/View/124561/Dollys-Angels
