NORTH ATTLEBORO, MA:North Attleboro resident David Santoro, a principal in the firm Santoro Financial Planning Group, raised $1,400 this fall in the Boston (Virtual) Marathon to benefit the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, an organization which helps provide support to families of cancer patients.

For Santoro, this was his 31^st consecutive Boston Marathon. And, despite his status as a qualified runner, meaning that his “run times” are strong enough that he qualifies to enter the race without needing to run for a charitable cause, he continues to fundraise to support families with cancer. In all, he has raised nearly $25,000 for the Joe Andruzzi Foundation (https://joeandruzzifoundation.org/), founded by former New England Patriots three-time Super Bowl-winning offensive guard Joe Andruzzi and his wife Jen. Joe Andruzzi is a cancer survivor and created the foundation to help other families with the costs of battling cancer. The Foundation provides grants to hundreds of families.

Supporting cancer patients is a cause near and dear to Santoro, who lost his mother, Geraldine Santoro, to breast cancer in 1999. For the last nine years, he ran in support of the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, and before that, for Dana Farber.  Because of COVID-19, the Boston Marathon was first postponed to the fall, and then converted to a virtual event, meaning that marathoners would select their own route for fundraising or qualifying purposes. Santoro worked with a local running club to create a 26.2 mile marathon route that went through North Attleboro into Attleboro, into Mansfield and then back to North Attleboro. He trained with this running club for the event. And while this was not his best finish time ever (which was 2 hours and 56 minutes, or a per-mile run time of 6:43), he was pleased with his finish time and more importantly the funds he was able to raise to support the Foundation.

“The Joe Andruzzi Foundation is a very worthwhile organization,” he said, adding, “I’m pleased to have been able to support it again this year. We weren’t certain what would happen with the Marathon due to COVID, but it was great to do the Marathon again this year and be able to help families in need.”

Prior to choosing the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, Santoro ran in support of Dana Farber Cancer Institute and estimates that all of his fundraising efforts over the years have exceeded $100,000.