One of the most memorable events in the City of Boston is approaching, and we couldn’t be happier to cheer on our fearless leader once again in this year’s Boston Marathon! This will be Brendon’s third time running the Marathon after completing all 26 miles in both 2014 and 2015. What an accomplishment! Now he’s gearing up to do it again!

When taking interest in running his first Marathon, Brendon teamed up with One Mission: A pediatric cancer charity that helps children and their families through the treatment of cancer. Ari & Ashley Haseotes, the founders of One Mission, built this charity from their own family’s journey with pediatric cancer. Since 2009, One Mission has raised more than $8.8 Million dollars and has brought comfort and support to over 8,000 kids fighting cancer and their families. It was such a great cause for Brendon to show and earn support for during the 2014 and 2015 Boston Marathon.

This year he’s running on Team CF of The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The mission of this foundation is to cure Cystic Fibrosis and give each patient the opportunity to live a full and productive life. Not only will Brendon be running to support the foundation, but he will be running in honor of a true inspiration: Caitlin O’Hara.

At the young age of two years old, Caitlin was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and was only expected to live until she was 12 years old. Throughout her 33 years of living with CF, her journey was not easy. Caitlin had been on a double lung transplant list for almost 3 years before the day of her surgery. Not only were there complications with the rules and factors of the initial organ donation, there were far more complications once the surgery was done. Caitlin passed away at the age of 33 on December 20, 2016.

Caitlin will always be remembered by her friends and family for her beautiful soul and exceptional outlook she had on life. Quoted in an article from the Boston Globe, Caitlin once said “I would not change anything about having Cystic Fibrosis. It made me the person I am, it made me a better person.” It certainly did. Caitlin went on to study art history at George Washington University where she was later transferred to Boston College, receiving an art history award upon graduating. She worked as a gallery assistant at Polly Latham Asian Art in Boston and later launched her own business, Knot Clothing. I think anyone would be able to truly say that living with CF did not keep Caitlin from achieving her dreams.

Brendon will not only be running to support The Cystic Fibrosis foundation in honor of Caitlin, but also to spread awareness of organ donation and its’ process. Is it a lot more than just adding the little red heart to your drivers’ license. There are ways to ensure your information is added to a database to insure the availability to donate to patients like Caitlin and give them a second chance at life. Please visit http://fightcf.cff.org/goto/bgiblin to show your support for Brendon and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation team. We’ll will all be cheering them on!