I Am Running For Catherine

Hello Friends and Family-

After an amazing fundraising campaign last year, I have again decided to run the Chicago Marathon in 2024 on behalf of the Danny Did Foundation.

As most of you know, our daughter, Catherine, suffered from a very rare form of pediatric epilepsy called Infantile Spasms- or West Syndrome. Without control of the seizures, Catherine could have become severely brain damaged or may have even died. It was a very scary time for us, but with the help from her doctors, we were able to stop the seizures almost immediately. Catherine was lucky in that she responded to the seizure medication and treatment plan- but this is certainly not the case for all children. The almost unnoticeable seizures lasted only a couple of days, but Catherine is still recovering now at 6 years old.

The Danny Did Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps raise awareness about pediatric epilepsy, and supports families who are raising a child with epilepsy. The Foundation was created in honor of Danny, a Chicago boy, who died shortly before his 5th birthday from SUDEP- a sudden unexplained death from epilepsy. His family knew that he was having seizures, but were never given the proper care to address them. They knew nothing about epilepsy or how to treat it. I cried thinking about Catherine and how lucky we were to have the medical care she received back when she was a baby. Our lives could have been very different without the expertise and urgency from Catherine's doctors.

I am raising money for the Danny Did Foundation to help support seizure awareness in children and to provide resources for families who are battling epilepsy. Pediatric epilepsy is an extremely scary and unknown disease and the Danny Did foundation has a great mission to help educate families and prevent death caused by epilepsy. You can read below for more information about the Danny Did foundation. Please donate if you can- any amount would be greatly appreciated!

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About Danny Did Foundation

Founded by Chicago parents Mike and Mariann Stanton in 2010 after the sudden death of their four-year-old son Danny, the Danny Did Foundation’s primary mission is to prevent deaths caused by seizures. The Foundation advances public awareness of epilepsy and Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), strives to improve communication about SUDEP between medical professionals and families affected by seizures, and advocates for the mainstream acceptance and use of seizure detection and prediction devices that may assist in preventing seizure-related deaths.

Epilepsy affects 3.4 million people in the United States and 65 million people worldwide. One in 26 Americans will develop epilepsy during their lifetime. But what few people understand, including many people with epilepsy, is that seizures can be fatal. More people die as a result of seizures than from fires and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) combined. In addition to deaths caused by drowning, other accidents, and status epilepticus (prolonged seizures), thousands of deaths occur annually from SUDEP, a fact that is little known and too rarely addressed by medical professionals and in public discussions of epilepsy. Danny Did Foundation takes its name from the last line of Danny Stanton’s obituary, written by his dad: “Please go and enjoy your life. Danny did.” We celebrate Danny’s spirit in every child and family we reach.