After training for four months, a group of San Diego fifth graders took on the challenge of running a 5K Thursday in support of their classmate who is battling leukemia for the second time.
Students from Explorer Elementary Charter School laced up their sneakers and ran a 5K at Liberty Station as their way of showing support and raising funds for their friend and fellow classmate, Isaac.
Isaac is currently undergoing chemotherapy that will have him going in and out of the hospital for treatments for the next few months.
The 10-year-old boy is keeping positive through it all. He told NBC 7 seeing his friends running for him made him feel “awesome.”
“Just all the support I get from my family and friends –it’s amazing,” Isaac said. “I just keep positive and keep pushing through it.”
Isaac had to sit out the run Thursday because his stomach was feeling upset, a side effect of recent treatments. The boy said he will run again once he’s finished with his chemo treatments.
His friends aren’t the only ones pounding the pavement for him.
Local
Last month, NBC 7 reported on a group of firefighters at Station 61 on Miramar who have banded together to run the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in their firefighting gear, also in support of Isaac.
The firefighters work with Isaac’s father, Adam Martinez, a fellow fireman. Like Isaac’s classmates, running is the firefighters’ way of raising money for Isaac and cancer awareness.
So far, the firefighters have raised nearly $11,000 for Isaac through this GoFundMe page. Everything beyond the family’s costs, they say they will donate to pediatric cancer research.
Meanwhile, Isaac’s schoolmates have raised more than $2,500 for him on GoFundMe through their Run for Isaac page.
