Freeburn Law is proud to announce that the firm is a sponsor of the 2013 Running for Rachel 5-Kilometer Run/Walk to be held Sunday, April 28, at 9 a.m. at City Island and Riverfront Park in Harrisburg.
The event is named for Rachel Guss, who died at age 25 following a long hard-fought battle against duodenal adenocarcinoma, a rare form of cancer.
Rachel was diagnosed with the disease at age 23, as she was close to finishing her master’s degree in occupational therapy at Elizabethtown College. But instead of starting her field work, Rachel started the first of what would be 14 chemotherapy treatments.
Rachel saw many surgeons around the country who all advised against her having surgery. Eventually, she and her family went to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where two surgeons agreed to surgically remove the tumor wrapped around Rachel’s aorta. She became the first person in the United States to ever undergo such a surgical procedure.
Rachel would have nine major surgeries before the cancer came back a third time. She died in November, 2011.
Gregg Freeburn, a personal injury attorney at Freeburn Law, was a classmate of Rachel’s at Central Dauphin High School. They were good friends.
“She was an all around good person,” Gregg remembers of Rachel. “She was the kind of person who you honestly don’t have one negative thing to say about or have one negative memory about. Rachel was smart, athletic, easy going and fun. She always had a smile on her face. She was probably one of the nicest girls I’ve ever met.”
All proceeds from the Running for Rachel 5-Kilometer Run/Walk will be donated toward finding new treatments for duodenal and pancreatic cancer.