He enjoys running for a cancer-fighting cause
Bob Botto runs for fun, but also for cancer research.
“I’ve been involved in Relay for Life since 1999. I showed up at the Lee College relay that year and ran a marathon just for fun. After that, I got hooked and started raising money. Every year I would raise more money and run more miles. I got up to 75 miles. It used to be a longer event, but now it lasts eight hours so I run 20 or 25 miles. I’ve raised as much as $25,000 for one relay. Overall, I believe I’ve raised about $160,000.
“Besides the fact that I enjoy running so much, the relay is important to me because my sister almost died from cancer. She had bone cancer when she was 14 years old. It was pretty touch and go for a while. They used immunotherapy, which in those days was a very experimental treatment, but it worked. Her leg had to be amputated above the knee, and she has an artificial limb. But the treatment worked. She’s alive today.
“When I run for that event I think about my sister and my mother-in-law, who had both breasts removed in 1977. She also had a form of leukemia when she died of old age at almost 96 years old. She lived until 2010. That’s a real survivor. She was so inspiring.”
— Bob Botto
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