Hope Starts Here Challenge Weekend
Hundreds of people turned out for the 7th annual Hope Starts Here Challenge, put on by the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center.
The fundraising event on Saturday was a chance for the community to show their support and participate in a day full of athletic events.
But at the end of the day, it’s not about who finished first but about how to help fight against brain cancer.
Participant Jake Bal says his father was diagnosed with brain cancer last winter and passed away about two months later; now his entire family runs the Challenge in his honor.
Funds raised from this event will be used by the Upper Michigan Brain tumor center for research.
Marquette General neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Rovin says this is the best year yet for the event, with about 500 participants who raised somewhere around $18,000 for the center.
He’s overjoyed about the kind of community support the researchers and students with the center receive from not only patients and their families, but physicians, nurses and other residents.
Rovin says you won’t see that kind of outpouring for brain cancer research anywhere else in the country.
Posted by: Mike Hoey