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Forty-two Deloitte & Touche employees are running this year's Boston Marathon with Team Brigham to raise money for the Ellen P. Gabriel Breast Cancer Fund
In 1999, Ellen P. Gabriel was 44 and back in BWH, waging her second courageous battle with breast cancer. A mother, wife and successful career woman and national leader in one of the country's largest professional services firms in Deloitte & Touche, Ellen had launched a fund in her own name to aid breast cancer-related community outreach programs only five years earlier.
“She was a well-respected and admired firm leader and an industry pioneer in taking on a significant leadership role in recruiting, developing and retaining women at Deloitte,” Steve Wagner, a national partner with the firm, said. “When her cancer returned, it was a startling shock to so many of us.”
That April, on the Tuesday after the Boston Marathon, “I had this sudden urge to do something,” said Wagner. It was then that he pledged to train and run the 26.2 miles the next year while his colleague would line up pledges and sponsors to raise money for BWH community breast cancer programs.
But Ellen died two months later and never saw Wagner cross the Copley Square finish line in 2000 and every year since as the leader of Team Deloitte, Team Brigham's “team within a team.” With runners from corporate offices in California, Georgia and New York, this year Team Deloitte is 43 runners strong, comprising one-third of Team Brigham and nearly double last year's contingent.
Six years later, Ellen's legacy endures and continues to inspire loyalty and commitment from new generations of Deloitte associates, including first-time Team Brigham member Dana Souler, a semi-senior in Deloitte's Assurance Practice. “Unfortunately, since I've only been here for two years, I did not get to know Ellen personally, but I feel like I knew her and what she went through,” said Souler, who watched first-hand as her aunt and a college professor battled breast cancer.
The 127-member roster of Team Brigham is filled with runners like Wagner, Souler and all of Team Deloitte, both seasoned runners and fledgling marathoners who are inspired by friends and family members and the world-class health care they received along the Nesson Pike. Team Brigham members are heartened and bolstered with these courageous stories to conquer Heartbreak Hill and the 26.2-mile course while raising thousands of dollars for BWH.
You can help. To learn more, stop by the Team Brigham informational table outside the Cafeteria Tuesday and April 11 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or visit http://healthcare.partners.org/teambrigham .