Walking for a cause - cancer
By Caitlyn Kelleher

Nancy and David Tanguay

For the second year in a row David and Nancy Tanguay are walking to raise money for the Jimmy Fund in the annual Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk on Sunday, Sept. 17.

The couple will be walking with "Team Neuro", which is based out of the Dana-Farber Clinic's neurological cancer treatment center, which is treating David for his cancer.

"We became involved with the Dana Farber Clinic," Nancy said. "Any proceeds that are raised go to their specialty."

Doctors diagnosed David's medical problem as neuroblastoma in June 2003.

"It was located on his cerebellum," Nancy said. "It is usually a childhood or infant tumor."

David is one of a handful of adults that has been diagnosed with this form of cancerous tumor.

He his had five brain surgeries, a stem cell transplant, radiation and chemotherapy.

"In the last five or six months his scans are coming back clean," Nancy said.

She said her husband has not lost his positive and optimistic attitude but he has lost some of his short-term memory and organizational skills.

"It is such an unknown," David said of a lack of a longterm diagnosis. "I feel like I made it through better than a lot of people."

The couple is trying to get out and walk through town every day.

"People will see us walking all over town," Nancy said.

There are more than 6,500 walkers signed up to participate in the walk and they are expected to raise more than $4.75 million for cancer research and care for children and adults at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Over the last 17 years more than $40 million has been given to the cancer institute as a result of the walk.

Some walkers take the 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boston, while other take the 13.1 mile walk starting in Wellesley - which is the walk Nancy did last year - or the three mile route starting at the Harvard Medical School.

"The three-mile is the family walk," Nancy said. "It's a little more leisurely."

Nancy will be doing the three-mile walk with David and her mother this year.

They are hoping that the money that is raised help with some of the research into the treatments and support for the neuro-oncologists at Dana-Farber.

"We've become very close to our neuro-oncologist and to the people there," David said. "They seem to get shut out when they are up against all the other cancers."

The Tanguay are also involved with the Relay for Life and Dan Bourgouis, of Ashburnham, rides in the PanMass Challenge in David's name.

David said the goal is to raise people's awareness and to try to get people involved with the support. He said some of it is just knowing what people are going through helps them become involved.

David said they have received such support from friends and family, citing the fact that for the 50 consecutive days he was receiving radiation treatments in Boston that someone different volunteered and drove him to and from the treatments and waited with him.

"It's so rare to find someone who hasn't been by cancer," Nancy said.

-  - Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: caitlynkelleher@aol.com