On Monday, April 17, Holliston’s Joanne O’Connell will run the Boston Marathon for the ninth 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 – Brendan, Matthew, and Christopher – organized The Timothy O’Connell Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to pediatric cancer research.

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, you’ll find links to me and two teammates who are also running – Claire Picard and Bobby Kiley,” Joanne explains.  “We are so lucky to have Claire and Bobby running for us this year,” says Joanne, explaining that Claire Picard, a longtime French Immersion teacher in the Holliston Public Schools, was Tim’s third grade teacher, and that Bobby Kiley, a Holliston native, who starred on the football field for the Panthers and won the Timothy O’Connell Courage Award his senior year, was inspired to run by Timmy’s courage. “Every dollar makes a difference, so please consider supporting any or all of us.”

Joanne says she hopes to see lots of familiar faces along the Marathon route on Marathon 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.”  

Regardless of whether she sees or hears those supporters during the Marathon, Joanne is confident that she’ll finish the race, as she has each of the marathons she has entered:  “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.”