Marathon organ donor set pace for gift of giving
By Jennifer Rosinski
Death did not stop Cynthia Lucero from
giving.
The Waltham resident's organs were donated to
patients in several area hospitals after her death one day after she ran in -
but did not complete - this year's Boston Marathon, her family said. Lucero's
heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and cornea were harvested and given to needy
patients in the Bay State.
"It is a source of comfort to know that
it means so much to someone - that it made such a huge difference,"
Lucero's older sister, Alexandra Stirling of New York, said in a choked voice.
"It was something we knew she wanted to
do."
An 11-year-old girl got Lucero's heart and
went to summer camp. A grandmother in her 50s received Lucero's liver five
months before the grandmother was expected to die. One of Lucero's kidneys went
to a young woman who has been sick since childhood.
"Her legacy is going to live on for a
long time," said Rick Muhr of Grafton, head running coach for the Leukemia
and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Lucero trained for the marathon with
Muhr and his team.
That legacy, friends and teammates said, is
the way Lucero lived her life and the lessons she taught.
It was a natural connection for Lucero to
train with the society's team. She had written her doctoral dissertation on how
running marathons help people deal with the grief of losing loved ones to
cancer. She presented that dissertation four days before the marathon.
Lucero, a native of Ecuador, told friends a
horrific car crash in Sudbury four years ago changed her outlook on life. The
28-year-old suffered severe injuries in the crash. Later she became an avid
volunteer who counseled battered woman. After Sept. 11, she also counseled
family members at Logan Airport.
"She just had an incredible perspective
on life," said Jessica Hoguet, a Needham mother who met Lucero four years ago
while the two were interns at Wellesley College's Stone Center. They trained
for the marathon together.
"She was just this little ball of light.
I likened her to Tinkerbell. That's just what she was like."
To repay Lucero the kindness she bestowed on
others, her coach and teammates will hold a memorial run and fund-raiser from 8
to 4 p.m. Sunday at Grafton High School. More than 200 people are expected.
"For a lot of people, it will be a
release. We didn't really get a chance to celebrate the marathon because of
Cynthia's death," said Rick Wasserboehr of Natick, who met and befriended
Lucero while on the team.
"Hopefully there will be a lot of
healing that day. It's definitely going to bring tears."
Lucero was running her second marathon on
April 15 when she collapsed at mile 22. She was taken off life support at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston the next night and became the second
fatality in the 106-year history of the race.
The state medical examiner ruled Lucero died
of hyponatremic encephalopathy, a swelling of the brain from low sodium levels.
Friends said Lucero drank a large amount of fluids throughout the race and
complained of feeling rubber-legged right before she fell.
Organizers hope to raise more than $25,000 to
start a scholarship and center in Lucero's name at the Massachusetts School of
Professional Psychology in West Roxbury, where she was a student. The school
granted Lucero her clinical psychology degree posthumously two days after the
marathon.
"The hope of the school is to create a
kind of living memorial," said Dr. Nicholas Covino, the school's
president. "That's why a center makes sense."
Covino said the center will focus its
programs and speakers around Lucero's interests, including how sports and
culture affect mental health.
The highlight of the Sunday event will be a
special ceremony that follows a noon "Memorial Mile" around the high
school track, Muhr said. Lucero's parents, Martha and Hector, will be presented
with a charcoal drawing of their daughter. They will travel from Ecuador for
the event. Stirling will also attend.
"I think it's going to be an uplifting
kind of day, and I think that's what she'd like to see," Stirling said.
"It's touching to see how many people were touched by her."
Friends and teammates will then be asked to
share stories and memories of Lucero with the group, Muhr said.
Muhr said plans to remember Lucero in other
ways are in the works.
"That is one of the commitments we made
to Cynthia's family after she passed on," said Muhr, the head men's cross
country coach at Worcester State College.
Lucero's friends and teammates will finish
the race for her in late November when they run four miles from mile 22 to the
finish line in front of the Boston Public Library.
And by next year's Boston Marathon, Muhr
hopes to have a bronze statue of Lucero erected at mile 22. The statue will
capture Lucero as she finished her first marathon in San Diego two years ago.
The statue will bear a poem written in Lucero's name by a Canadian man.
Sunday's event will also include a raffle and
the silent auction of more than 52 prizes, including Celtics tickets, a
football autographed by members of the New England Patriots, running gear and
restaurant gift certificates. Raffles cost $1 each, with discounts given to
multiple purchases.
Attendees can also send balloons to heaven
for $2 and buy specially made T-shirts for $25. Food and beverages will also be
for sale.
The event will be held inside Grafton High
School if there is inclement weather.
Those who wish to donate to the center and
scholarship can send checks made payable to the Massachusetts School of
Professional Psychology, 221 Rivermoor St., Boston, MA 02132