About Team Tara

Our background

Our Jimmy Fund Walk team is a group of passionate and productive people of all ages and backgrounds. We share the common bond of seeking a cancer cure and we are all willing to work hard in that effort. While we appreciate all efforts that help cancer patients, we are specifically focused on funding cancer research. Every year we designate our funds raised for The Jimmy Fund to an underfunded area of cancer research. In 2015, 2016, 2022 and 2023 we funded lung cancer research. In 2017 and 2018 we funded pancreatic cancer research, and in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 and again in 2026, we will focus on metastatic colon cancer research. We will not stop until we find a cure!

about the jimmy fund walk

By participating in the 2026 Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk presented by Hyundai, our team is making every step count toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer!

This year, on October 4th, we will be gather back on the historic Boston Marathon course. We also have the option to walk in our communities. Either way, we will be together, wherever, against cancer. The Jimmy Fund Walk is a family-friendly event that includes great people and inspiration along the route. Your feet may be sore at the end but your heart will be full!

2026 Our Inspiration

Josephine (“Jo”) Henderson

The Diagnosis That Changed My Life

In February of my junior year of high school, I came home from church camp complaining about a pretty severe stomach ache. Honestly, I thought I was constipated. I had eaten terribly all weekend, so it seemed like a reasonable explanation.

But the pain didn’t go away.

By April, I was taking Miralax every day while touring colleges with friends. By May, I was sitting out of lacrosse practice because moving hurt too much. In June, I went to my pediatrician, got an X-ray, and was told everything looked normal. Then came a summer of more pain and more questions.

In July, I saw the GI department at Boston Children’s. In August, an ultrasound showed nothing. In September, I saw the GYN department. Again, nothing. Then came multiple CT scans and an MRI in October.

All the while, I was trying to be a normal high school student. I was sitting out of cross-country practices, coming home early, and spending hours curled up in a fetal position because the pain was so severe I couldn’t move or speak. I just kept wondering, What could possibly be causing this?

Finally, in November, I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy.

November 14, 2025, was the day my life changed completely.

They found a large, stage-four cancerous tumor in my colon that was pressing against my left ovary. An ovary is about the size of a walnut. Mine had grown to about the size of a peach.

The original plan was to preserve my fertility by saving eggs from my right ovary. But when they scanned me a week later, we learned the cancer had already spread to both ovaries.

My December 9 surgery was moved up to December 3 because my doctors were concerned about how quickly the cancer could spread. At 17 years old, I had both ovaries and a foot and a half of my colon removed.

After recovering from surgery, I started chemotherapy. Five days after New Year’s Eve, I had my port placed, and on January 7, 2026, I began my first of 12 chemo treatments, every two weeks for six months.

Somehow, those six months felt both incredibly long and incredibly short.

I still lived.

I went to Fort Lauderdale over February break. I went to my senior prom. I graduated high school. I went to Cape Cod. And after my final chemo treatment, I even got to go to Europe.

From the outside, you might never have known what I was going through. Unless I started talking because I’m an over-sharer, I probably looked like any other teenage girl.

But behind the scenes, my hair was thinning. I struggled to focus on schoolwork. And I couldn’t drink my favorite thing in the world, an iced latte, because the neuropathy from chemo affected me so badly, especially as treatment went on.

There was so much happening that people couldn’t see.

But I made it through.

I made it through because of God, my surgeons, Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Horowitz, my oncologist, Dr. Kimmie Ng and her NP, Nina Grenon, my incredible chemo nurses, Taylor and Lauren, my biggest inspiration, Ali Hornung, CEO of the Glimmer of Hope Foundation, and the people I love who surrounded me every step of the way.

The Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber gave me life. 

Now, I want to give something back.

I want to encourage kids like me to keep living, even when life looks completely different than they imagined. To celebrate the good days. To make the memories. To appreciate the little things.

Because if cancer taught me anything, it’s that we don’t know how many days we have.

So I’m going to live every day like it’s my last, and I hope I can inspire someone else to do the same.

- Jo Henderson
Member, Team Tara

Research at Dana-Farber

Kimmie Ng, MD, MPH

Dr. Kimmie Ng is Associate Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. She serves as Co-Director of the Colon and Rectal Cancer Center and the Director of Translational Research in the division. She is also the Founding Director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber, one of the first of its kind in the country. Her research focuses on identifying dietary, plasma, and molecular predictors of improved survival in patients with colorectal cancer, with a special interest in the vitamin D pathway, the microbiome, and young-onset colorectal cancer. Her research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Research UK, U.S. Department of Defense, and other foundation and industry grants. She has been featured in multiple national media outlets, including the TODAY Show, MSNBC, ABC News, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, to raise awareness of young-onset colorectal cancer and the importance of cancer screening.

Team Tara Liaison

Amanda Shuman serves as the Jimmy Fund’s Senior Director of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising and liaison to Team Tara. “I’m excited to work with Team Tara, an extraordinary Jimmy Fund Walk team that has rallied nearly 2,000 walkers and raised close to $1.5 million over more than a decade. Their dedication and community spirit exemplify the purpose-driven fundraising that fuels the Jimmy Fund’s mission.”

Learn More

Articles of interest by Dr. NG

Cancer keeps coming for the young. Why?
The Rise in Colorectal Rates Among Younger People
What is the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center?

Videos with Dr. Kimmie Ng

join the team

Join our team on October 4, 2026 and walk to conquer cancer. You will love the people you meet along the way and the hope you feel with every step!

Tara’s blog

Tara is a 46-year-old mother of two, diagnosed with triple-positive breast cancer in August 2012. Before her diagnosis, she knew nothing about cancer. This blog is the story of Tara’s journey.

Amy’s 2023 Extra-Mile Award

Amy Killeen was honored with the 2023 “Extra Mile Award,” an award presented to someone who has “gone the extra mile” and embodies leadership, commitment to Dana-Farber’s core values, and the ability to motivate.

RESPONSE to covid-19

Read more about how our team responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our partnerships

Team Tara cherishes the partnerships we have made over the years. Click here to learn more.

OUR INSPIRATION

HOPE AWARD RECIPIENTS