PEABODY — Two Peabody residents, Katie Colombo and Rachael Randall, are running in this year’s Boston Marathon as a part of the Boston Children’s Hospital Miles for Miracles team.
In the process, they hope to raise a collective $35,000 to go towards the families and children that need support from BCH. Already, the two have accumulated almost $25,000 in donations from the community.
It’s a cause that’s close to both women who have had life-changing personal experiences with BCH and know firsthand just how crucial the hospital has been for countless families.
“My son [Jeremiah] was born a healthy, full-term baby in December of 2017 and two weeks later, my husband and I were home, and he had a shrill cry,” Randall told The Daily Item. “About an hour later he developed a temperature. I was like, you know, if we’re gonna go anywhere, we need to go to Boston Children’s.”
Jeremiah would soon be diagnosed with bacterial meningitis that gave the young boy bilateral hearing loss. The seven-year-old now uses hearing aids and continues to work with BCH in their Deaf and Hard of Hearing program.
Since his birth, Randall and her son have been advocating and educating about his experience, helping to raise millions of dollars through the Kraft foundation and through the role of patient partner with various companies.
“We’ve shared his story countless times at this point,” she said. “We raised over $2 million from just me really sharing his story and sharing our experience and what we went through at Children’s and really how much their care impacted him the rest of his life.”
Randall, who is now participating in her second marathon on the Miles for Miracles team, also runs for Adalina, her best friend’s daughter who is a patient at BCH’s Down Syndrome Clinic, as well as Jeremiah’s buddy Matthew, who just so happens to be Colombo’s son.
He too needed lifesaving care from BCH when he was born with a renal fusion, necessitating consistent monitoring and testing for the first five years of his life. Thanks to the hospital’s care, Matthew is now a happy six-year-old with no medical concerns.
“People travel the world to be at Boston Children’s and to have their kids there, so we’re really lucky to be just kind of down the street from them,” Colombo said.
She also remembers how her sister, Kara, needed heart surgery as a newborn and was in the care of the BCH doctors for six months.
Along with these personal testimonies motivating their training, Colombo and Randall find new stories from fellow teammates accrediting the amazing care that this hospital brings.
“I think it’s much easier when you have someone next to you, pushing you or telling you why they’re running, and it just gives you that extra motivation,” Colombo said. “The team is incredible, just listening to their stories and why they’ve been running. Some of them have been running for over 15 years.”
For this team of 100 runners who have had their lives touched in various ways by the caregivers at BCH, they can give back over 26.2 miles and six months of dedication.
To donate to Colombo and Randall’s teams, visit https://secure.childrenshospital.org/goto/KatieColombo or https://secure.childrenshospital.org/goto/TeamJeremiah.
