CONCORD, Mass. —

For Allison Girolimetti, running is about giving back and giving thanks for a journey that could have ended differently.

"I've been running it every year since Ava was first diagnosed," Girolimetti says of the B.A.A.'s Boston Half . "It's a lot of hours out on the road on my own. And it's really a time of reflection for me to be just so grateful that we are where we are because not everybody's story is the same."

Her story is about a brave little girl, her daughter Ava, who was diagnosed with leukemia at 6 years old.

"She did chemotherapy for two years and then, six months later, she relapsed and did chemotherapy again," Girolimetti said. "She couldn't get into remission and needed CAR T-cell therapy."

In fact, Ava was just the 10th patient to get CAR T-cell therapy

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