Sheena Lawrick will run the 2026 TCS New York City Marathon to raise money for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where her son Gus was treated for retinoblastoma. Lawrick, an Evanston mother, was selected for New York Road Runners’ Team Inspire and will run with Fred’s Team on Nov. 1. Gus was 4 when he was diagnosed with the rare eye cancer.
Lawrick first noticed an unusual flash in Gus’s left eye shortly before his fourth birthday. In February 2024, she and her wife, Servia Rindfleish, took him to a pediatric ophthalmologist, who referred them to a retinal specialist. The specialist suspected retinoblastoma and raised enucleation, or removal of the eye, as one possible treatment, according to the Evanston RoundTable.
A Weekend Call Led to a Fast Diagnosis
Lawrick and Rindfleish contacted Memorial Sloan Kettering over the weekend. The hospital helped them navigate insurance and arranged for Gus to see Dr. David Abramson the day after their Monday call, the RoundTable reports. The family flew to New York, and Rindfleish’s employer-provided insurance covered the procedure.
Abramson confirmed Gus had retinoblastoma, which had not spread beyond his eye. MSK later determined the cancer was not hereditary; Abramson described it as a sporadic mutation in retinal cells as they divide, according to the RoundTable. Gus began treatment two days after his examination.
Months of Treatment Without a Single Overnight Stay
Gus received three intravitreal chemotherapy injections at Weill Cornell, followed by three intra-arterial chemotherapy treatments at Memorial Sloan Kettering, roughly four to five weeks apart. The procedures were done under anesthesia. Although each lasted about an hour, preparation and recovery made for an eight- to 10-hour hospital day. Gus returned to the hotel afterward and, the RoundTable reports, was back to himself by the next day.
The RoundTable reported that Dr. David Abramson and Y. Pierre Gobin advanced direct intra-arterial ophthalmic artery infusion for retinoblastoma in 2006, a targeted approach that delivers chemotherapy to the eye. Memorial Sloan Kettering says its retinoblastoma program dates to 1914 and reports that 99 out of every 100 children with retinoblastoma survive. Its materials discuss eye retention and normal vision separately, rather than combining them in a single 95 percent claim, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Watching for Calcified Seeds, Year After Year
Abramson told the RoundTable that Gus’s tumor shrank, died and calcified, leaving minute seeds that doctors monitor in follow-up scans. Gus initially needed scans every four weeks; they are now scheduled every 12 weeks, and he will need annual scans for the rest of his life. Now 6, Gus has retained sight in the affected eye and is considered successfully treated. Lawrick told the RoundTable that families in the retinoblastoma community often avoid the words “cure” and “remission.”
The RoundTable also reported that Gus had unusually long naps before his diagnosis. Blood tests ordered by his pediatrician were normal.
Running Alongside Two Other Families Who Know the Same Fight
Lawrick is one of three mothers selected for Team Inspire, which recognizes compelling runner stories by assigning a runner or team to each of the marathon’s 26 miles, according to New York Road Runners. The other selected runners are Laura Lang and Sherie Buell. Their children — Gus, Lang’s daughter Holly and Buell’s son Noah — were each treated for retinoblastoma. Buell later withdrew from this year’s race because of a stress fracture.
The 2026 race marks 50 years of the marathon’s five-borough course. The route crosses the Queensboro Bridge, proceeds up First Avenue through the Upper East Side and East Harlem, then turns into the Bronx. NYRR expects nearly 60,000 participants and more than 2 million spectators. Fred’s Team, MSK’s official charity running program, was founded in 1995, a year after marathon founder Fred Lebow died of brain cancer as an MSK patient.
How the Fundraising Programs Work
Team Inspire highlights runners’ stories, while Fred’s Team is MSK’s charity running program, raising money for cancer research. Memorial Sloan Kettering reported that Fred’s Team runners and donors raised $8,529,723 for cancer research in 2024, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
A Medal Meant for Someone Else's Wrist
Lawrick grew up in Calgary, Alberta, graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in human sciences and child development, and played first base for Team Canada softball at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She had not run a marathon before joining Fred’s Team. She has raised more than $20,000 for Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Lawrick and Rindfleish, who met in 2010 and married in 2019, plan to have family members cheering near mile 17, where the course runs along First Avenue at 67th Street, around the corner from Memorial Sloan Kettering on York Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets. Lawrick plans to pause for hugs and photos with Gus before running the final nine miles. She intends to give him her finisher’s medal, which she sees as a reminder of the strength he showed during treatment.
