On December 11th, 2022, I will be running a marathon in honor of my brother who passed away from brain cancer.

I hate running. But running a marathon is something I promised my brother I would do before he died THAT I NOW DEEPLY REGRET. Honestly, he wasn’t even a runner, so I don’t know what I was thinking but here we are regardless. So, I’m doing it. As my friend Kunal said to me “you gotta do this. You can’t shortchange your dead brother."

On February 9, 2010, my brother, Gabriel passed away peaceful in his home from brain cancer just a month short of turning 36 years old. As of March 25, 2022, I have outlived my brother. It’s hard to think about but also impactful to me appreciating my life and that I have the opportunity to live.

Gabe was an amazing person, son, brother, uncle, aunt, husband and father.

Truly, he had always been a wonderful guy. He took care of me as my big brother when I was young, despite his loving nickname for me: “the anti-christ”. He played catch and we’d shoot hoops whenever I begged him and begged him. He took me camping. He taught me how to swing dance which he took as a course in college because “they’re the easiest credits to get”. He also mentored me on the importance of Nicholas Cage movies, fishing and country music.

Between his diagnosis and his death, Gabe lived for 18 months with love and appreciation for life and endless support from his family and friends. Because of the fact that he had health insurance, he was able to receive quality medical care both for the medical emergency that resulted in his diagnosis, to chemotherapy and radiation treatment all the way through hospice care before his last day.

A lot of people with cancer are not lucky enough to have the care he was afforded. A lot of people can’t even afford basic health insurance due to the overwhelming inequities of living in America steeped in racism, sexism and poverty. The American healthcare system is not set up to care for all but instead for profit of those already with enough (or too much) when so many people have far too little.

Healthcare is a basic human right. Everyone should have health insurance. It shouldn’t a privilege only for some. Everyone should be able to get the cancer treatment they need. Many do not because of costs or they and their families go into debt or even lose everything simply trying to get the medical care they need to fight for their lives.

Unfortunately, that includes children and their families taking care of them. For parents who don’t live close to the medical care their child needs, there’s an added stress: distance. Many families have to travel hours for treatment. Living expenses quickly add up. Long drives, lost jobs, worried siblings, sleeping in cars. Being far from family and friends. These are extra burdens no family should have to experience.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities is able to help when it’s needed most. They keep families with sick children near to each other and give them the medical care and resources they need.

Please consider donating to this worthy organization that helps take care of those that might otherwise go without. Those that might be forced to lose everything in the effort to simply save their sick child, or the worst possible scenario, watch their child suffer without the care they need and die simply because of not receiving the basic human right of healthcare.

By making a donation today, you can help give underprivileged children access to medical treatment as well as the gift of laughter, love and time together.  For a sick child, sometimes the best medicine of all is having family nearby for more hugs, kisses and I love you’s.

So, if you can, please help me raise funds #forRMHC and keep families together by donating today.

Thank you for your time, may you and your family be healthy and finally, as my brother used to say, in a Sean Connery accent, whenever I left to go somewhere “Godspeed”,

-Maria