This week’s Badass Chick is Sandwich resident Mackenzie Sullivan, creator of Mackenzie’s 5k for Crohn’s Disease.
When she was a senior in high school, Mackenzie was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which prior to that had been undiagnosed for over two years. Mackenzie was gravely sick; she underwent 6 surgeries, over 50 procedures, was taking 20 pills a day and couldn’t stand up for more than five minutes at a time. Two weeks before she was supposed to start her freshman year college, she had to pull out to focus on becoming healthier.
During that time off from school, she had plenty of visits with he doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital. She mentioned to the doctor how much she wanted to begin running again, and her doctor told her that he would run a road race with her once she was feeling better. So Mackenzie looked in the mirror one day, said she was tired of feeling sad, and she went to work. But, instead of finding a random road race to run, she decided to create her own and, at the same time, raise money for the very disease she was fighting.
During her gap year, she organized every last detail of the race, and rallied over 500 people to run, volunteer at and raise money for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. It was such a success that Mackenzie has decided to make it an annual event and has since raised over $20,000 for the cause. Her story and her contributions have been so important to the CCFA that she will be highlighted at the Fete of Food & Wine benefitting the CCFA one week from tonight. (Click here if you want to get tickets!)
I love that Mackenzie refused to take pity on herself; instead, she got others involved and is giving back to a community that means so much to her and has made her the healthy, happy undergrad student that she is. Mackenzie is set to graduate this May in elementary education!
If YOU have a Badass Chick you want me to highlight, email me: Loren@1033ampradio.com
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