The New Year is Just Starting, but Haverhill’s Lemieux Already Has Boston Marathon Plans

Merrimack Valley Newsmakers

It may be just the start of the new year, but for the thousands of people planning to run in the 2025 Boston Marathon in April, the season is already here.

One of the Marathon participants will be Haverhill native Jillian Lemieux. For her, running the Marathon means more than finishing the 26.2-mile course, it’s means raising money to help find a cure for cancer. Lemieux, a recent guest on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” program explained she ran cross country and track at Haverhill High School, but was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma just before graduation in 2016. Her coach, Mike Maguire, helped her through those times

“When I was getting diagnosed, he was big support for me. I remember when it was right around this big meet that we were going to, it was a big exciting meet, but I had gotten a biopsy right before that, so basically, he allowed me to do whatever I could. He didn’t push me. He said ‘I want you to be comfortable and be good.’ He’s just always been a support, and even during my treatments he would text me and wish me good luck for the next treatment. He even allowed me to run with the team on weeks that I felt good, which gave me such a sense of normalcy,” she said.

Because of her illness, Lemieux delayed entering UMass Lowell, where she majored in psychology with a minor in public health. She now works in administration at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Lemieux’s mother also had the same diagnosis when she was teenager in the 1980s. Her treatment was successful but, due to the limited medical knowledge at the time, her mother received too much radiation and eventually developed breast cancer, from which she passed away.

“I was treated at Dana Farber for six months and I received chemo, and the care that I received there was really exceptional. My doctor went above and beyond just treating me. She really cared deeply about treating me as a person and me as a young adult. She took all of my own adolescent concerns about my hair falling out, and everything, it was as important to her as it was to me.”

Lemieux is looking to raise $10,000 for her Boston Marathon run, and is slightly more than a quarter of the way to her goal, which also includes training for the race with the help of Maguire who has developed a program for her. It’s a program that, on some days, would qualify for a half marathon, covering 13.1 miles.

“I haven’t signed up for a half (marathon) to do during my training but there are some training days where it is going to come out to a half marathon, so I guess I might as well sign up for one,” she says.

And even though it has been eight years since high school, Lemieux still remembers her time for the mile—5:31.

Lemieux will run the Boston Marathon April 21. Donations may be made online here.

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