Team Danny Did in the 2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathon

Having spent my entire childhood and adolescence in the Wildwood-Edgebrook community, I have come to fully realize how lucky I am to have been raised in such a tightly-knit community. After having attended St. Mary of the Woods and Loyola Academy and now going to school at U of I in Champaign, I constantly am amazed by how the bonds and connections formed within our neighborhood continue to stay intact. While we have celebrated each others' feats, successes, and milestones, we have also all unfortunately dealt with pain and suffering. The loss of someone is something a person can never truly be prepared for, but the death of a child is something that no one should ever have to go through. When a young member of our community passes away, everyone is affected, and when Danny Stanton passed away in 2010, the circumstances were no different.

Although only four years old, Danny had an appreciation for life unlike any other and an infectious personality that took hold of anyone who was ever lucky enough to meet him. When he was two years old, Danny began to frequently have seizures and suddenly passed away at the age of 4 after having been deemed seizure-free for over eighteen months. It was then later determined that he suffered from epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by epileptic seizures which can be nearly undetectable, and the Danny Did Foundation was soon founded in effort to raise awareness for epilepsy and SUDEP(Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy). By spreading the word about epilepsy, connecting patients and their families with well-equipped professionals, and raising money to provide additional resources and awareness to the public, the foundation hopes to ensure that people suffering from the disorder across the world can receive proper help and care.

And now here is where I am hoping to look for some of your help... On October 7, 2018, I, alongside the other runners on the Danny Did team, will be running the Chicago Marathon to raise awareness for epilepsy. Ever since I first attended the marathon with my parents nearly ten years ago, it has been a goal of mine to partake in the marathon but nothing more than that. Although I jumped from sport to sport throughout my four years of high school and ultimately ran track for my last two years of high school, I have never truly been a runner at heart. In fact during my junior year of high school, I ended my track season by losing a lengthy lead in a race by falling face first into the ground over a hurdle and ended my senior year season by tearing PCL while landing over another hurdle. To say the least, I took some time off from running and am ready to set some new goals as long as no hurdles are involved.

To be honest, I am just as equally terrified as I am excited about running the Chicago Marathon, but I could not be more proud to represent an organization like the Danny Did Foundation. With your help, I am hoping to raise $2,620($100 for every mile) in effort to ensure that no more families or individuals feel as if they are in the fight against epilepsy or any other neurological disorder alone. If Danny could do it and go on living his life, no matter how brief, with a smile on his face, I can surely take on this challenge and go for the 26.2!