Marty Liquori is the National spokesperson for The Leukemia Societys  Team in Training.

 

Marty was asked to join Team in Training in 1990. At the time TNT had raised 330,000 dollars in The New York City Marathon and was planning on taking the campaign national.

 

Six months after joining Team in Training Liquori himself was   diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia which he most likely had at the time Team in Training was formed.

 

Liquoris leukemia was discovered when he returned from covering the Pan American Games in Cuba and discovered a swollen lymph node in his groin. Thinking it was something from the trip he sought medical advice and was diagnosed with CLL which is a proliferation white blood cells. CLL is the most common form of Leukemia and usually affects older people. Better medical care is allowing CLL to be discovered earlier in younger patients.

 

Team in Training grew rapidly and became the largest fund raiser for The Leukemia Society and the worlds foremost sports training program. It changed the course of the Leukemia  by greatly increasing the amount of funds available for research and changed the  running landscape  as  charity running programs went from a pariah for the hard core  runners  to a program which created a second running boom which was  larger than that which  occurred in the  1970s.

Today, Team in Training trains over 40,000 athletes each year for triathlons, Cycling competitions , Marathons and half marathons.