Rain, Wind Can’t Stop Team JAF From Reaching Marathon Monday Goals

April 19th, 2018 by Joe Andruzzi

Despite punishing weather that had not been seen on Patriots Day for 30+ years, all 19 of the Joe Andruzzi Foundation’s “Team JAF” Boston Marathon runners crossed the Boylston Street finish line on Marathon Monday – a feat that perfectly captured the spirit, commitment, and determination the team had exuded throughout its training season leading up to the race.

The team members – mostly made up of runners receiving John Hancock Non-Profit Program Boston Marathon bibs – each dedicated their winter and early-spring towards a singular goal: to raise crucial funds in support of the Joe Andruzzi Foundation’s mission of providing …

Maine College Student Doesn’t Let Cancer Derail His Education

April 11th, 2018 by Joe Andruzzi

Brian Main thought his excruciating back pain came from lifting heavy water tanks during a controlled burn in his wildfire class at Unity College.

A sophomore in conservation law, he’d lifted tanks “no person should be carrying,” he remembered. But his pain progressively got worse. “I was waking up at night, taking Tylenol PM.”

Hours away from his own doctor back home in Sanford, Maine, Brian walked to a family doctor near his school. The doctor wasn’t sure what was wrong, but then Brian reported that during a self-exam, he discovered the pain in his back was connected to his testicles.

The doctor …

Somerset Mom Fights Stage 4 Breast Cancer To Be There For Her Kids

March 28th, 2018 by Joe Andruzzi

April Cabral’s cancer story started the way so many do: with a strange lump and equally strange feeling.

It was a few weeks after her 35th birthday, about two years ago now, and she was already scheduled for a mammogram.

“I went to the doctors and they weren’t really concerned about it,” remembered the Somerset mother of two. But she knew something was wrong.

She pushed to go earlier. And she got good advice from a medical technician who told her to ask for more in-depth scans of the unexplained lump in her armpit, which seemed to come and go.

“You know yourself,” April …

Celebrating World Social Work Month: Leaders. Advocates. Champions.

March 20th, 2018 by Joe Andruzzi

Krist at JAF UpBeat Cancer Codzilla event

Meet Kristy – a Community Resource Specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. To her patients and the Joe Andruzzi Foundation (JAF), she’s much more than that.

Kristy is an advocate for the cancer patients she serves – many fighting not only for their lives, but for their livelihood.

Every day, healthcare professionals like Kristy across New England meet with cancer patients to bridge the gaps in healthcare. Whether it’s transportation for treatments or advice for navigating health insurance, cancer patients rely on these support systems to help in the fight of their lives.

Kristy and her counterparts …

New Hampshire Woman Gains Strength After Beating Lymphoma

March 1st, 2018 by Joe Andruzzi

All Kasey Gossom knew was that she felt tired all the time. She was only 24, but she nevertheless blamed it on getting older.

“I thought maybe I was just out of shape, so I started CrossFit,” she remembered.

But nothing helped. She turned 25 and still felt exhausted. Then, she noticed two swollen lymph nodes near her collarbone.

“Enough is enough,’” she told herself. She went to the doctor, but was only diagnosed with Cat Scratch Fever and given antibiotics.

She was only taken seriously after she went to the emergency room with chest pain in February 2016. That’s when a CAT scan …