runDisney Charity Spotlight: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the celebrated charity of the 2025 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.

Hello everyone! My name is Adam Sechrist and I’ve been a runner, fundraiser and coach with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training since 2011. My journey with Team In Training began when my best friend’s mom called me and told me that my friend had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We were devastated, but she told me she had signed up with Team In Training to run a race and do what she could do to help with her son’s fight.

I decided to do the same and joined Team In Training for the 2011 NYC Marathon, not only was this the start of my decade long journey with TNT, but we also found out shortly after the race that my friend found out he was in remission and has since remained in remission for over a decade!

In the years that followed the NYC Marathon, I dedicated my free time to continue to fundraise, run and coach with Team In Training, doing my part to advance the mission and help those battling cancer have a fighting chance.

What I never expected was that cancer would rear its ugly head in my family.

In July 2018, my mom went to the emergency room and doctors found a tumor on her liver – the discovery started us on a journey of ups and downs, surprises, scares and ultimately extra time with Mom when the doctors were able to keep her aggressive cancer at bay.

That journey ended on April 26, 2024 when, after more than five years of battling a rare liver cancer, Cholangiocarcinoma, my Mom, Laura Sechrist, passed away as my sister and I held her hands.

But in that time, to say Mom defied the odds is an understatement.

In November of 2018, doctors successfully removed the tumor from her liver, and we had a few months of Mom being cancer free. Unfortunately, and as expected, the cancer came back. But this time we were ahead of it - her incredible care teams at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York and at the University of Kansas Cancer Center in Kansas City worked to find treatments that would slow the growth of her cancer. Those teams discovered Mom's cancer had the IDH1 mutation – news that gave us a chance and Mom a chance to beat the extremely low odds of the 5-year survival rate.

For more than two years, Mom's cancer was kept at bay with little or no growth thanks to a drug that was originally developed for Leukemia patients - directly targeting the IDH1 mutation to slow the spread. That drug allowed mom to feel like the cancer wasn't there. She didn't have side effects like she did on chemotherapy, and she was able to live a full and healthy life while on that drug. Mom was able to play with her grandchildren, hold her youngest grandson when he was born, travel to see her family and spend precious time with all of us who love her more than anything in the world.

Without The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its many fundraising efforts such as Team In Training, there’s a good chance that drug would never have been developed, the research and trials may never have been funded, and Mom very likely wouldn’t have had the extra seemingly healthy time with all of us.

Unfortunately, cancer is nasty, and it eventually outsmarted the drugs. For a couple of years following, Mom tried multiple other treatment options including clinical trials and updated versions of the medication targeting the IDH1 mutation. While these treatments worked temporarily, the cancer was too strong.

But our Mom was a FIGHTER. She pushed through pain for months to be there for her family, for her grandkids and for her friends. My sisters and I can only hope to have half the fight in us our Mom showed these last few months of her life.

We will be forever thankful to organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for its tireless work to fund the critical cancer research needed to improve outcomes and extend quality of life. Without the research The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society helped fund through generous donations, my Mom wouldn't have had the extra years she did She would have never been able to fly to California during the pandemic to hold my son for the first time, she wouldn't have gotten all the extra cuddles from her other grandchildren, wouldn’t have gone to Kansas basketball games with me or been there for the late night calls to talk about everything and nothing at the same time.

Over the past 15 years, I have completed 19 marathons, one Dopey Challenge, and raised over $50,000 (and counting) in memory of my mom and her epic battle with cancer. I have also done all this work to help give anyone who might be going through this disease a better chance at fighting it. I can’t stop, and more importantly, wont stop running, coaching, & fundraising for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society until there’s a cure.