On the Road to Fighting Brain Tumors

DURHAM, N.C. -- Recent Duke athletes Johanna Bischof and Jen Fraser will be among thousands of runners at the starting line of the ING New York City Marathon next month.

Both are now medical students at Duke and both have previous marathon experience. But they share another more compelling bond as they take aim at one of the world's biggest road races.

Bischof and Fraser will be running as members of Team McGraw, representing the Tug McGraw Foundation while raising money and awareness for the fight against brain tumors.

The two have extensive working knowledge and emotional involvement in the cause they will be supporting on the streets of New York. Fraser, who specialized in much shorter races such as the 800 meters for the Blue Devil track team, spent nine months working in The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke following her 2006 graduation.

Bischof, a 2005 Duke grad who starred for two NCAA-runnerup field hockey teams, is the recipient of a medical education scholarship from the Tug McGraw Foundation. Like Fraser, she became closely connected with the Brain Tumor Center as a participant in the school's CAPE (Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience) program for female varsity athletes who are pursuing a career in medicine.

Bischof and Fraser are two of the 36 Team McGraw members slated to compete in the marathon. Each runner is expected to raise $3,500 to support quality and quantity of life efforts for brain tumor patients, and each will be running in honor of a brain tumor survivor. Two others from the Duke community also are on Team McGraw ? Dr. Lee Jones, who directs the Tug McGraw Research Center at Duke, and Cindy Bohlin, a nurse involved in the battle against brain tumors.

Bischof is running in honor of Kris Campbell, a 1992 Duke grad and brain tumor survivor of over three years, as well as Mylene Roy-Vaillancourt, a northern Ontario woman who is now fighting her third brain tumor since her original diagnosis in 1993. Bischof is a native Canadian.

Fraser will be honoring Glenn Fredericks, a survivor who participated in an exercise oncology research study that Fraser was involved with under Dr. Jones' direction at the Duke center. Jones examines the physiological impact of brain tumors and their treatments in order to design exercise programs that can enhance the quality of life for patients.

Fraser is in her first year of medical school and has been doing much of her marathon training in the mornings before her classes, on the trails of the Duke Forest. She didn't miss a beat this summer even while on a two-week medical service trip to Guatemala for the CAPE program. She and Emily Waner of the Duke women's basketball team would get up at 5:00 each morning and run around their remote compound while wearing full scrubs.

Fraser has done one previous marathon, in New Orleans last February. "It's nice to be surrounded by a team this time," she said. "This is something that is a lot bigger than yourself, and I'm really excited to be a part of it."

Bischof has completed both the Richmond Marathon and the Boston Marathon in the past year and had already qualified individually for New York with her performance at Boston, prior to joining Team McGraw.

Distance running, she says, offers her a "quasi-competitive" outlet after so many years of field hockey, and serves as a relief from some of the stresses associated with medical school. As a second-year student, her life consists of various 12-hour rotations and 28-hour on-call shifts at the hospital. "I just get the training in whenever I can," she says of her workout schedule.

The Tug McGraw Foundation was established in 2003 to raise funds for brain cancer research, increase awareness of the disease and support college students who exemplify leadership and uncommon spirit. It is named for the late Tug McGraw, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who was a brain tumor patient at Duke.

His son Tim McGraw, the popular country music singer, is honorary chairman of the foundation. Bischof is the first recipient of the Tim McGraw Medical Education Scholarship, which provides $25,000 per year for four years.

"I am so excited about running and raising money with our team," she said. "It is a thrilling opportunity for me to give back to the foundation ? they sponsored my scholarship ? and to help people living with brain tumors now and in the future.

"Quality of life is one of the most important aspects of treating the person behind the disease; however, research in this field is often overlooked in the search for a cure. For this reason, the Tug McGraw Foundation is remarkable in taking the lead and supporting studies that can have an immediate impact on the lives of patients."

Bischof and Fraser are past the halfway mark of their fundraising goal. Contributions can be made through the Tug McGraw Foundation website. Team McGraw is hoping to raise a total of $200,000 in conjunction with its participation in the marathon, which is scheduled for Nov. 4.

On the Road to Fighting Brain Tumors

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