Winn ’92 Running Marathons to Support Leukemia Research

In an “Executive Profile,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle (April 23–29, 2010) highlighted the efforts of Matthew Winn ’92, managing director, Cushman & Wakefield of Georgia, Inc., who is running his third marathon with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. Winn will be running to honor his 5-year-old nephew, Nicholas, the son of Amanda Winn Lee ’94, on June 6. That same day will be the five-year anniversary of Nicholas’s remission from acute myelogenous leukemia.

Winn, himself the father of two children, wears a purple “Team in Training” bracelet, indicating his commitment to this group of athletes who are raising money—and awareness—for cancer research. In the Chronicle article, Winn shares the story of his nephew’s battle.

Nicholas was six months old when first diagnosed with AML. Winn recalls learning that there was a 50 percent chance that the baby could die in that first 24 hours after diagnosis, and remembers a particularly close call again five months later after a round of chemotherapy.

The family rallied around its youngest member. Between Winn, his parents, and, of course, Amanda and her husband, Nicholas was never alone during the entire six months of his hospitalization.

Although the disease carries a high rate of relapse in the first few years of the illness, five years marks the cure date. The family, including Nicholas, will be in San Diego to cheer on Winn. The family was already close and has now grown closer, says Matt, who admires his younger sister.

“Her strength through this was incredible,” he told Douglas Sams, staff writer at the Chronicle.

Winn is blogging about his training at http://tinyurl.com/tnt4nicholas.