I am running with the Children's Heart Foundation team for the Disney Princess Half Marathon on February 25, 2024. I've worked with the Children's Heart Foundation for ten years, and I'm excited for this opportunity to raise money for a cause close to my heart. CHF's mission is to advance the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of congenital heart defects (CHD) by funding the most promising research. Medical research is vitally important to those born with CHD, as congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect in the world, and the leading cause of infant death due to birth defects. Approximately 25% of children born with CHD will need surgery or other interventions in the first year of life to survive, and many others require surgery later in life. There is no cure for CHD. 

I am running for our good friend, Julia Cook, who was born with a complex congenital heart defect and underwent successful open-heart surgery at four months old. I am running for our daughter, Alana, who was born with three congenital heart defects. Alana was diagnosed in utero with her primary heart defect, Ebstein's Anomaly. She spent the first few weeks of her life in the NICU, and was life-flighted at two weeks old when she went into heart failure. Doctors started her on a medication used to treat heart failure, and she took this medicine every eight hours for two years to increase the supply of blood and oxygen to her heart. Soon after she turned two, Alana had open-heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. At the time, the surgical repair Alana had done had only been performed in the US for ten years. Her surgery was a success and she is now an active, thriving 11-year old. While I'm very grateful for her health, it is not lost on me that the treatment options available to Alana were the result of medical research and fundraising efforts by people long before she was born. It is a debt I will never be able to repay. It is also not lost on me that there are parents out there who have heard, and continue to hear, "We're sorry, but there are no more treatment options for your child." In this vein, I will also be running for Izzy Stothers, a beautiful, imaginative girl who lived with CHD for 15 years before passing away this past November.

It is my deepest wish that no parent has to hear these words or face this reality. Hearing that your child will have to live with one or more congenital heart defects is hard enough, but I can't imagine hearing that medical research hasn't come far enough to save your child. Please support me in my fundraising efforts, so that every child born with CHD has the chance to live a long, healthy life. Every donation, no matter the size, is appreciated and can make a life-saving difference for a person living with CHD. Thank you so much for your support!