Running the TCS NYC Marathon to make a difference

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Mom survived leukemia.

Dad is battling lymphoma.

Ellen Kurkowski of Manhattan will run this year's TCS New York City Marathon to honor the two people who brought her into the world.

The 34-year-old has been training for weeks. She says her parents' courageous fight against cancer provides her with all the inspiration she needs to get through the 26.2 mile course.

Kurkowski understands - more so than most loving daughters - the physical challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis. She is an emergency room physician who has seen and treated countless patients suffering through the painful realities of a debilitating disease.

So on Marathon Sunday Ellen Kurkowski will run - fast and strong. For Mom. For Dad. And for so many others as well. It's a Marathon mission designed to lift up her parents and to raise money and awareness that leukemia and lymphoma can and will be defeated.