The Boston Marathon® course has several significant landmarks, including the starting line in Hopkinton, up Heartbreak Hill, turning ‘right on Hereford and left on Boylston,’ and many more.
But for Zoe Bosenberg, hitting mile 21 and running past the Boston College campus might be the most significant. It’s where she spent many Marathon Mondays as a BC student. And in many ways, it’s where her journey started to get to this point, being a member of the Joe Andruzzi Foundation’s 2025 Boston Marathon® team.
Zoe was a nursing student at BC. In the summer going into her senior year, she started to experience debilitating headaches. Her symptoms kept getting worse until she was eventually diagnosed with a brain tumor. In a whirlwind few weeks, she had surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, recovered, and was back starting her senior year just a few weeks later. And it seemed like all was okay. It was a one-in-a-million story, but it was a happy outcome for the moment.
Zoe completed her degree, started working as a nurse in the Boston area, and eventually got a job as an oncology nurse at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, set to work at their new Chestnut Hill campus. She still got regular MRIs back home every six months but figured now that she worked for Dana-Farber, she would move her care there. And that’s when her world flipped upside down. Her care team wanted her to start a clinical trial right away. It was revealed her tumor was not curative and was something she would have to deal with for the rest of her life.
So, Zoe started on a new drug the following fall designed to prevent growth. She took a pill every day, got monthly blood work, and her MRI schedule moved to every three months versus six. And the bills started to pile up.
When first diagnosed, Zoe was still on her parent’s health plan, and her surgery and follow-up MRIs had a $0 co-pay, and she never had to deal with a financial issue. However, now Zoe was on her medical insurance, and despite the drug being covered, anything that wasn’t considered ‘standard of care’ came out of her out of pocket. It was a lot to handle for someone in their mid-20s who had just recently purchased their first condominium and just started their career. Zoe was feeling the financial burden a cancer diagnosis can have on a patient, even years after being initially diagnosed.
“People think when you’re going through a cancer diagnosis, it is just ‘get in the door, get into the right institution, and that’s it, you’re done,’ but it’s not. There’s so much that goes into it, and having to deal with financial struggles on top of the physical, mental, and emotional part of it, no one should have to deal with that.”
Thankfully, the trial went well, and the drug was approved. But Zoe will have to be on it for the rest of her life.
Zoe had always played sports growing up and even played rugby through college until her diagnosis. But running was new. She has done a half-marathon and worked her way up to running a full marathon in Berlin, Germany, last year. Now, she’s set a goal to run all the world majors.
When applying for a Boston bib, Zoe learned about the Joe Andruzzi Foundation (JAF) and instantly connected with its mission. That’s why she’s so excited to run and raise money and awareness for JAF.
“JAF sticks out to me because [they are] providing hope to somebody. When you see your doctor or even me as an infusion nurse, they give you hope, but this is a different kind of hope. It’s away from the actual medical portion…Hope you continue to live your life. A lot of these treatments, scans, and visits can be so debilitating and exhausting. So, providing that light and hope with this financial aid is so powerful. And it’s something that’s overlooked.”
Zoe has two goals for race day: to be an official finisher and to have fun. She’ll be doing so for a cause that means a lot to her, given everything she has gone through as a nurse and a patient.
“I just want to bring more awareness to [JAF] because there is more help out there. [They] can make your livelihood better.”