On Monday, April 18, Holliston’s Joanne O’Connell will be running the Boston Marathon for an eighth time.  She will be carried along the 26.2-mile route by the memory of her late son, Timothy, who passed away in 2008 at the age of 10 after a courageous battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

Upon Tim’s passing, Joanne and her husband Kevin, together with their three sons who survived their brother, organized The Timothy O’Connell Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to pediatric cancer research support and related goals.

To support Joanne’s run and to learn more about the mission of The Timothy O’Connell Foundation, Joanne encourages Holliston Reporter readers to visit www.timsteam.org.  “If you go to the EVENTS tab and click on the Boston Marathon, then click on the picture of me from a previous run, you can make your donation,” Joanne explains.  “Every dollar makes a difference.  The Foundation donates every dollar raised to cancer-related causes.”

Many Hollistonians are familiar with another run that Joanne routinely participates in: Tim’s Trot.  That event, a 3 km road race (or “fun run”, as Joanne calls it), was held in September– the month of Tim’s birth and death and, coincidentally, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month– every year between 2011 and 2019.  The Trot attracted community members of all ages, with close to 1,000 participants joining the fun in some years.  But the COVID pandemic has required Joanne and her fellow trustees of the Foundation to put Tim’s Trot on hold. 

“The Trot has not only been a great community event,” says Joanne, “but it has helped us raise tens of thousands of dollars over the years.”  Since its founding in 2008, The Timothy O’Connell Foundation has raised more than $1 million, $125,000 of which has funded scholarships for Holliston students committed to studying medicine, nursing, physical therapy and other health sciences.  “Because the Trot and essentially all of our other fundraising efforts have been on hold over the last two years, our community’s financial support of this year’s Marathon run is more important than ever,” Joanne explains.

Joanne says she hopes to see lots of familiar faces of supporters along the Marathon route next Monday.  “It’s a privilege to get a number and be allowed, as a charity runner, to join world class athletes and so many good-hearted people on the iconic Boston route.  And it’s right in our backyard!  Every time I’ve run, I see and hear so many friends and supporters from Holliston, not only in Ashland and Framingham, but all the way along the entire route.  It’s amazing.”  But regardless of whether she sees or hears those supporters next week, Joanne is confident that she’ll finish the race, as she has each of the marathons she has entered:  “Yes, I’ve trained hard, but what gets me through is more the fact that I’m running for those who can’t, for Tim and other children who aren’t with us any longer because cures haven’t been discovered yet.  Knowing well the courage these children have shown, the strength they have, makes doing what I’m doing pale in comparison. In one sense, it’s not easy, but comparatively speaking, it is.”