Illinois Medicine

W 24 | FALL 2012 HAT MAKES CHRIS AND NIKKI HARAS RUN? The memory of their father, Peter A. Haras, who died in 2006 from complications of diabetes, and their unflagging determina- tion to save others from the same fate. The 30-year-old Haras twins have run 184 miles and raised nearly $16,000 for diabetes research as members of the Cellmates on the Run charity running team. Comprised of many different types of runners—from diabetics and first-time marathoners to Iron- man champions—the team runs to support the Chicago Diabetes Project (CDP), a consortium of physicians, scien- tists, engineers, chemists and molecular biologists from three continents who are collaborating to find a cure for diabetes as quickly as possible. Cellmates on the Run is the brainchild of CDP Director José Oberholzer, MD, and his running partner, Martin Schlatter, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. The two friends had been talking about ways to generate private funding to RACE AGAINST TIME THE FUNDING GENERATED by Cellmates on the Run couldn't come at a more critical time. Today, diabetes affects more than 197 million people worldwide. The World Health Organization predicts that this number will more than double by 2030 and diabetes may become the world's leading cause of death. Behind these statistics are countless stories of diabetes' devas- tating complications. Chris and Nikki Haras are all too familiar with these complications—and diabetes' deadly toll. Their father, Peter Haras, had lived with the disease for as long as Chris and Nikki could remember. Over the years, he'd fallen victim to grueling complications such as low blood sugar attacks, neuropathy, impaired vision and kidney failure. After Chris donated a kidney to her father in 2003, everyone hoped that the worst was over. But three years later, Peter Haras died of a heart attack at the age of 57. Diabetes had devastated the Haras family. But the inspiration "I was grieving for my dad and I needed to do something as my way of fighting back—my way of honoring him," explains Chris Haras, 30. Adds her twin sister, Nikki, "When I read about the work that Dr. O and advance the CDP's research in islet-cell transplantation. The topic came up often during their training runs, but the epiphany didn't come until 2008, when Ober- holzer and Schlatter ran the New York Marathon. Paced by Oberholzer, a lifelong runner, Schlatter made it to the finish line in less than four hours. But after crossing the finish line, the Wrigley executive fainted—and race paramedics quickly transported him to the medical tent. While Oberholzer waited for his friend to recover, he idly picked up a brochure about charity running teams and leafed through it. "When Martin woke up," recalls Oberholzer today with a chuckle, "the first thing he said to me was 'Don't tell my wife. Outrunning Diabetes: Since 2009, the Chicago Diabetes Project's charity running group, Cellmates on the Run, has raised more than $750,000 for lifesaving diabetes research. ' Then he asked what I was reading and I held up the brochure. He exclaimed, 'Oh my good- ness, that's it! We can create a charity running team and raise money for your diabetes project.' Martin went home and immediately put a market- ing plan together." In 2009, the Wrigley Company sponsored Cellmates on the Run as an official charity with the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Dur- ing the team's first year, 131 runners raised more than $200,000 for the CDP. By the end of 2011, Cellmates runners had raised $750,000. Ober- holzer hopes to register enough runners in 2012 to raise $500,000 more. to raise funds to help fight the disease didn't come until 2009, when Chris ran across the Cellmates on the Run link in the charity run- ning section of the Chicago Marathon website. "I was grieving for my dad and I needed to do something as my way of fighting back— my way of honoring him," she explains today. When she realized that Cellmates on the Run was a fundrais- ing group for diabetes research, she clicked on the link for the Chi- cago Diabetes Project website to find out more. "The testimonials by the islet-cell transplant recipients really got to me," she recalls, "because their stories sounded so much like my dad's." The idea of running to fight the disease that had cut her father's life short appealed to Chris. So she broached the idea to her sister. "When I read about the work that Dr. O and his researchers were doing, I was sold right away," says Nikki. "I couldn't wait to get started." The twins signed on with Cellmates in June 2009, which left them just under four months to train for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October. They used social media to generate 95 percent of their sponsorship support, posted regular updates on their Facebook page and put a donation bucket near the cash register at Blueberry Field, the Haras family's restaurant in South Holland. The physical rigors that followed proved to be more daunt- ing. "We were both in pretty good shape, but I don't think either one of us had ever run more than five miles at one time," Nikki confesses. "Chris found a training plan online and we followed it as much as we could. But with school and work and the hours we

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