It’s that time again to dust off the running shoes and start training for the 8th Annual Melana Matson Memorial 5K and One Mile Fun Run which will be held again this year at Garrettsville Summerfest. The race will be held at 9a.m., (runners/walkers should arrive by 8:30 a.m.) on Sunday June 24, 2018 starting right down town. The cost for a runner is $25 and a walker is $15. The runners will have a scenic view of the gentle rolling hills of the countryside surrounding the village over the 5K course. Registration can be done online at www.gopherarun.com. All proceeds from the race benefit Friends of Melana (FOM). The race is co-chaired by Diana Morris and Douglas Paroff.
This race was started eight years ago in memory of Garrettsville’s Melana Matson who lost her battle with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG). DPIG is a deadly type of brain stem cancer that grows rapidly and gives children a death sentence. The disease research is grossly underfunded, with very little being done until the McNamara family lost their daughter Maria in 2007.
Maria McNamara was a seven year old, who while battling her own glioma prayed for other children to be healed. This inspired her parents Ed and Megan McNamara to carry out their daughter’s mission by starting Prayers from Maria. Prayers from Maria is a research foundation that is dedicated to answering Maria’s prayers through the funding of meaningful, global research of treatments, causes and cures of children’s gliomas.
FOM shifted their focus from support to the family to fundraising for a cure. They partnered with Prayers from Maria and the two groups together have awarded over five million dollars in grants for researching the disease. The ultimate goal is to find a cure.
Here are some statistics on what the groups together have accomplished.
In 2010, a $100,000 grant went to Dr. Bing Cheng-Wang at Metro Health Center in Cleveland as seed money to secure a 3.3 million dollar grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue brain tumor progression research.
In 2012, a $100,000 grant went to Dr. Mark Kieran at The Dana Farber Institute to support his ground-breaking study of young patients with DIPG. This allowed him to expand his knowledge of the molecular structure of DIPG tumors and develop two tumor fighting drugs ready for clinical trials.
In 2014, a $250,000 grant, named The Melana Matson Memorial Grant was awarded to Case School of Engineering’s Efstafathios Karahanasis, which developed nanoparticles to carry drugs across the blood/brain barrier that keeps standard medicines from reaching the tumors. The nanoparticles can carry the chemo drugs to their target. This opened the door for a 2.82 million dollar National Institute of Health Grant in essence to make tiny bombs carrying the drugs past the brain’s defenses, to the target.
And the latest, a $100,000 grant, was awarded to Case Comprehensive Cancer Center to study the genetic mechanisms behind pediatric high grade glioma tumors. Their findings could lead to new therapeutics designed to alter how cancer operates inside the tumors. This grant was named the Josh Metzger Memorial Fox Trot Grant, after an 8 year old Barberton, Ohio boy, who lost his battle with the disease in 2008. The monies for the grant were raised thru the Cleveland television station’s 2015 Fox 8’s Fox Trot.
Doug Paroff, one of the co- chairs for the race, shares why he runs. He said he runs because he has healthy children and is thankful for that. Melana was a classmate of his youngest daughter Theresa. Doug said, “My daughter came home from school and told me that one of her classmates had an incurable form of cancer known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma ( DIPG). It hit me hard.” Then it seemed like a few short months later his daughter Theresa said, “Melana had died.” Doug was devastated that a child that was 9 years had died. Some time later, Theresa asked him to run in a 5K race at Garrettsville Summerfest to help raise funds for DIPG research. Doug began training for the race which he said was grueling and at times thought he couldn’t do it. In fact, he said the race was horrible and even painful — left him very sore for days following the race. During that recovery time, he got a new perspective on running. He mentally thought, “I have two healthy daughters and Melana is no longer with us. I have to do something about this.” Now, when you ask him why he runs, this is his response. He said “I run for those who can’t,” and usually ends up sharing about DIPG cancer and Melana.
Flash forward to now. Doug runs marathons and ultra marathons sharing about Melana and raising awareness and funds for finding a cure.
I share Doug’s story because I find it hits home. Like many of us, we have healthy children and we should be thankful and give of ourselves for those who can’t. The 5K and 1 mile fun run / walk at Summerfest should have everyone with healthy children working toward a cure.
For more information on the race one can contact either of the Co-Chairs Douglas Paroff at dparoff@icloud.com (please put FOM 5K in subject line) or call 330 351-3507 or Diana Morris at be4him.oh@sbcglobal.net, or call 330 931-1660.
