DEDHAM - When John Connolly lines up in Hopkinton for his first Boston Marathon this spring, his goal will be greater than just finishing on his feet 26.2 miles away.
The Dedham Police detective will be running to beat a great modern killer. The money he raises will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to pay for research.
The 28-year-old Easton resident, who ran competitively in high school, works out several times a week. He has participated in several charity road races, and has ridden the Pan-Mass. Challenge annual bicycle race, all to raise money for cancer research. But this year's Boston Marathon, scheduled for April 16, is new territory for him.
"This is kind of out-of-the-blue for me," Connolly said.
Connolly, who is single and has no children, said three of his relatives were stricken with cancer, and his grandmother died of the disease. This has reminded him that cancer can strike any family, and people need to work hard to battle it.
"It's just something that affects everybody so much," he said yesterday. "It's just a great cause."
Lisa McEvoy, a spokesman for Dana-Farber, said Connolly is part of the Patient Partner Program, which assigns a participating runner a "partner" - a patient at the institute - to offer moral support. The program has been in existence since 1992.
All partners participate in meetings and other activities with the runners leading up to the race, and finish the annual program by assembling on the sidelines at the 25-mile mark to cheer on their Marathoners, she said.
The program gives patients at the institute a chance to play an active role in fighting cancer, McEvoy said.
"It gives them something to do outside their treatment. It gives them something to focus on," McEvoy said of the patients.
Connolly said 6-year-old Jake McGuire, a leukemia patient, is his partner. The Dedham officer recently invited McGuire to visit the police station, and made him an honorary "junior detective."
Police Chief Michael Weir said he is proud of Connolly's commitment to the charity. Weir said Connolly helped organize a fund-raiser concert March 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Moseley's on the Charles. The concert will feature the Celtic band Gaelic Storm.
"He's really focused on (the charity)," Weir said.
Weir said his department is behind Connolly "100 percent."
"We'll support him in any way possible," Weir said.
McEvoy said patient partners are just as enthusiastic. Some even join the runners for the last mile.
"It's something on Marathon Day for the patients to look forward to," she said.
Connolly said running the course will be the toughest physical challenge he has ever faced, but seeing McGuire and the other patient partners near the end will put his pain in perspective.
"Whatever pain I'm going through (that day), it's really nothing compared to what these families are going through," he said.
Daily News staff writer Sean Murphy can be reached at 781-433-8337, or by e-mail at smurphy@cnc.com.
