ALF Marathon Runners Hit the Pavement to Fight Liver Disease

As the Boston Athletic Association’s first official charity team, ALF has a long history in Boston. Since 1988, the American Liver Foundation Marathon Team has made a dramatic impact on the American Liver Foundation’s mission to promote education, advocacy, support services and research for the prevention, treatment, and cure of liver disease. Since joining the Boston Marathon Official Charity Program, ALF has raised over $40 million.

“We have a long history with the Boston Athletic Association, and we are tremendously grateful for their long-standing partnership and support,” said Lorraine Stiehl, Chief Executive Officer of American Liver Foundation (ALF). “There are approximately 100 million people in the U.S. affected by liver disease, that’s nearly 1 in every 3 Americans. We’re so grateful to our runners who will help raise awareness and funds to help combat this disease.”

The Boston Athletic Association was the recipient of the ALF Endurance Award in 2021 which recognizes the transformational leadership of many of our founders, medical visionaries, and valued partners. The ALF Marathon Team made history when it became the first member of the Boston Marathon^® Official Charity Program. Over the last 34 years, ALF’s partnership with the Boston Athletic Association has raised more than $40 million in crucial funds for the fight against liver disease.

The American Liver Foundation team is made up of novice to experienced runners, most of whom have a connection to liver disease.

“We run in honor of our dad, who has Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC), a rare autoimmune liver disease that currently has no cure and will soon require a liver transplant,” said sisters Emily and Sarah Tully who are the American Liver Foundation 2022 National LIVEr Champions. “We are continually honored to be able to run for the American Liver Foundation and help its efforts to further the research of this disease and support families like ours.”

To support individual runners in the 2022 Boston Marathon^®, view the team list and donate at  Our Team – Liver Life Challenge Boston. Participants include:

• Nick Acosta: Running in honor of his parents, who both died from Liver Cancer. This will be his 4^th
• Lindsey Cunniff: Joining the ALF team for the second time! Ran the Boston Marathon® in 2018. Both times in honor of her father who died of liver disease in 2017.
• Bill Ducasse: Running in honor of his wife, Tracy, who was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver after experiencing 40 excess pounds of fluid weight in her legs and abdomen. This marathon will be his 3rd full marathon, and he has run 69 other races of various lengths since the loss of his wife in 2018.
• Rachel Harris: Running on behalf of her uncle, Sheldon Silver, who passed away in November 2020 from bile duct cancer (Cholangiocarcinoma), just thirteen days after first walking into a hospital with pain. This will be her 11^th
• Angela Hernandez: Running in honor of her 63-year-old father, Ricardo Hernandez, who had a short and intense six-week battle with liver cancer. She also runs for one of her closest friends, Tracy Broyles, who was diagnosed with liver disease and later passed away at age 32. This will be Angela’s first full marathon.
• Fred and Kristin Kostecki: Running for their daughter, Abigail who, at the age of four, was diagnosed with Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis with Portal Hypertension.
• Sophie Long: Running in honor of her liver recipient Caitlin. Sophie and Caitlin were ALF 2021 National LIVEr Champions. This will be Sophie’s second marathon, her first being the 2021 Boston Marathon ® where she qualified for this year’s run.
• Brian MacMahon: Liver patient joining team ALF for the 14^th
• Michael Morrissey: Running with team ALF for the first time. Morrissey, a liver patient was diagnosed with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver disease, NAFLD.
• Steve Nugent: A Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis patient who has had two liver transplants, one from his sister as a living donor and a second from an altruistic donor. Since waking up from his second transplant in 2016, Nugent had the goal to run the Boston Marathon^®. This will be Steve’s second run with the ALF Team; his first in 2021.
• Jim O’Connell: This will be Jim’s ninth run with the ALF Marathon Team in Boston. He runs in honor of his father who passed from liver cancer.
• Phil Shin and Mark Murphy: Phil received a liver transplant from Mark in 2019. Shin ran the Boston Marathon ® on behalf of ALF in 2021, just two years after transplant surgery and raised nearly $10,000, and Murphy will be joining him this year.
• Jamie Silvestri: Became involved with the American Liver Foundation in 2018 when his wife Shannon became a live living donor for a member of their community. Jamie is picking up the torch this year after deferring due to COVID-19 in 2020.
• Billy Whitney: This will be Billy’s ninth run with the ALF Marathon Team. He has raised over $100,000. Billy joined the team to celebrate his survival after being diagnosed with early-stage cirrhosis at 25 years old.

Find a listing on the full American Liver Foundation (ALF) 126^th Boston Marathon® team.