“Every mile out there is a gift and every finish line is a gift.”
By Faith Pinnow
The call came late on a Friday afternoon in December of 2019. Nicole Flood was sitting in her office in Canton when the doctor on the other line told her that she had grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma, a type of breast cancer.
Flood, a 36-year-old public health nurse, was seven months pregnant with her son, Tyler, at the time.
“Because it was the weekend, she said I’d have more information on Monday,” Flood said. “So I got off the phone and I just cried. It was the worst day of my life.”
By the start of the next week, Flood was matched with Dr. Amy Comander, Director of Breast Oncology and Survivorship at Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham. Immediately, Comander and her team began outlining a treatment plan for the soon-to-be mother of two, as well as a delivery plan for Tyler.
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“Right off the bat she was just very encouraging,” Flood recalled about her first meeting with Comander. “She wanted to take it one step at a time. She had so much energy and just a vibrance about her.”
“One step at a time,” is an offshoot of Comander’s personal mantra, “Every mile out there is a gift and every finish line is a gift.” The quote from the 1968 Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot guides her practice, and now, her patients.
“I use it every year,” Comander says as she trains for her 11th consecutive Boston Marathon. “When I’m having a hard time, this is a gift.”
Just four years after Flood underwent a mastectomy, delivered her baby, and started chemotherapy in the span of eight weeks, she was set to run the race alongside her doctor for the Ellie Fund.
The Massachusetts-based non-profit, which provides essential support services for patients undergoing breast cancer treatment, was introduced to Flood through Comander and a social worker from Mass General-Waltham.
“What the Ellie Fund did is they reached out and they said, ‘What can we do that will help you? What do you need? What do you think is gonna be the most helpful in this situation,’” Flood said. “I was like, how am I going to take care of a newborn while going through 4 and a half months of chemotherapy? I was already feeling a little anxious about having a second child so close in age as it was.”
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The Ellie Fund provided Flood and her husband, Jason, the funds to hire a night nurse 3-4 times a week for upwards of three months. As Nicole focused on getting healthy and Jason worked as the family’s sole provider, the assistance was invaluable to Nicole’s recovery. In addition, the Ellie Fund sent the Floods grocery gift cards to alleviate financial stress during the unprecedented time.
“It wasn’t just like, ‘Okay, here’s some resources. Here’s some money, and we’re moving on to our next patient.’ Just from a human standpoint, and the compassion that they had for me as a mom… I knew I wanted to give back eventually,” Flood said.
So far, Flood has raised over $17,000 for Team Ellie ahead of the 2024 Boston Marathon. While a recent femoral stress fracture and labrum tear will prevent her from running this year’s race, she’s proud of the funds she raised – 100 percent of which will go towards helping others who are undergoing breast cancer treatment.
“This money is directly going to help patients with breast cancer,” Comander, who serves on the Ellie Fund Board of Directors and has raised over $14,000 herself, said. “Even my daughter who volunteered at the Ellie Fund a few weeks ago, she was putting gift cards to grocery support in envelopes and mailing them out.”
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Flood and Comander agree, running for the Ellie Fund is about community. While Team Ellie consists of only six runners, the network of survivors, family members, physicians, and caretakers are bonded by the shared experience of breast cancer in their lives. For people near and far, Team Ellie has built a fellowship by amplifying personal stories of treatment, training, and outreach.
Two-thousand miles away in Los Angeles, Mamie Coleman and Towalame Austin embark on their last week of marathon training before joining the rest of their team in Boston. The two friends have been competing in marathons alongside one another nearly a decade after Coleman paced Austin through her first half in 2015. The following year they finished the Los Angeles Marathon together.
Coleman, whose mother and sister were both diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, said her choice to run for Team Ellie was a no-brainer. The executive vice president of Fox Entertainment’s music division has a long track record of running for charity, but the Ellie Fund mission hit close to home.
“This is near, very near and dear to our hearts, because we both have family members that have had breast cancer and cancer in general, and we were coming off of the Berlin Marathon charity race that we did,” Coleman explained.
The pair had, literally, just finished the Berlin Marathon when Coleman turned to Austin and said “We should do Boston. Let’s let’s do the world. The 6 major world marathons!”
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“I was looking at her like, ‘Are you crazy?’ Like we literally just finished,” Austin said, laughing. “But I think the Ellie Fund for me was also a really good fit. My sister was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and one of my dear friends is a two-time cancer survivor.”
Austin, too, has a storied history of charity work. As the executive vice president of philanthropy and social impact for Sony Music, she understands the importance of building up strong communities of individuals who support each other.
“I love grassroots organizations,” she said. “That’s where a lot of my work comes from, just in supporting those organizations. And the Ellie Fund, they feel like they’re in the trenches and so that really spoke to my heart when Mamie brought the organization to my attention.”
The two text every day to check in about training. They hold themselves accountable through their Nike Run app, marveling at the other’s pictures from a beach long run. Some weekends, they’ll knock out 18 miles together, running from Pacific Palisades to Manhattan Beach.
While their runs together haven’t changed much, racing for Team Ellie has offered Coleman and Austin a new perspective on their training.
“Running has more meaning and more purpose to do it for a cause, and to help people,” Austin said.
Like Dr. Comander says – “Every mile out there is a gift and every finish line is a gift.”
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To learn more about how to support the Ellie Fund and its 2024 Boston Marathon team, visit elliefund.org/team-ellie.
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