This year marks the 15^th UofL Medals4Mettle event, which pairs the UofL students with children battling critical illness who are patients of Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. The students presented medals they earned for running the 13.1-mile mini marathon or 26.2-mile marathon on April 30 to the kids at a socially distanced, outdoor party at the Health Sciences Center Courtyard.

This was the third time that fourth-year medical student David Means has run the KDF miniMarathon in honor of Seth Walsh, a 7-year-old battling leukemia.

“I’ve gotten to see Seth grow year by year,” Means said. “I’ve actually seen him at a UofL game and we’ve done a few other events. Just to meet him and his family and see what a cool family they have – so much support for this little man.”

Walsh has his collection of the medals hanging on his bedpost, said his mother, Michelle.

“It’s a great way for the students to learn what these children are going through, but fun for the children to realize that people are there for them,” she said.

The UofL Medals4Mettle event is part of an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization that links athletes and critically ill individuals. The pandemic prevented the traditional in-person medal ceremony for the last two years, so students running in 2020 and 2021 sent their medals to the kids with a personal note, connecting virtually over Facetime or Zoom when possible.

This was the third Medals4Mettle run for Madi Harley, a third-year medical student who plans to practice pediatrics. While her buddy was unable to attend Saturday’s medal exchange, she enjoyed the smiling faces of the kids who were there.

“I hope we are able to serve as a bright light for each kid, reminding them they are rock stars and we are rooting for them,” she said.

One of the 73 young patients who received a medal was 5-year-old Drew Krause, who has acute lymphocytic leukemia. Drew’s medal came from UofL medical student Luke Meredith, who ran the MiniMarathon.

Drew’s mother is herself a doctor – Andrea Krause, MD, a pediatric hospitalist at UofL. She said when Drew was diagnosed on Nov. 30, 2016:“the Krause family’s lives changed forever.”

Krause said she ran a half marathon when she was a fourth-year medical student. “At the time, that was probably one of the hardest things I had done, to run such a long distance. I didn’t think it was possible. I know a lot of the runners here today might have had their doubts about, ‘Am I going to finish? Can I do this?’

“So I told the students at the ceremony that long-distance running might help them understand what patients and their families go through, and thanked them, saying ‘true acts of kindness’ like the medal donations are really what gets you through. It is very true the statement that no one fights alone.”

The event was part of the “Medals4Mettle” program, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization that links athletes and critically ill individuals. Before the race, each medical student was matched with a child to whom they would be giving their medal, who they had a chance to meet with earlier this week.

Taylor Hodge, a fourth-year medical student at UofL and co-president of the Medals4Mettle chapter at the School of Medicine, said students “learn about disease, but it’s not every day that we learn what disease means to patients and their families.

“Meeting them gives you a little bit of insight into what they deal with every day. I’ve learned bravery is putting one foot in front of the other, even when all the cards are stacked against you and you don’t really feel like doing it.”

Medals4Mettle was founded in 2005 by Dr. Steve Isenberg, an otolaryngologist in Indianapolis. Isenberg said he had just finished running the Chicago Marathon when he learned a patient of his, who also happened to be a close friend and fellow doctor, had been readmitted to the hospital severely ill. He went up to his room, with the medal in his pocket from the day before. He put it around his friend’s neck.

“It was an amazing moment for us, and after he died, his wife told me how much that meant to him,” said Isenberg, who came from Indianapolis for Saturday’s ceremony in Louisville. He said he started the organization because he thought maybe the experience could benefit others.

UofL’s program began in 2008 as the first medical-school based Medals4Mettle program in the country. It has continued to grow, and Dr. Isenberg said it has provided template for other medical schools across the U.S. “It helps the students realize what they are really training to do,” he said.

It was the ninth year students from the School of Medicine have participated in the UofL chapter of Medals4Mettle, running the Derby Festival races in honor of patients in the UofL Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. This year, students from graduate programs and the School of Dentistry also participated.

Julie Klensch, a fourth-year medical student, presented her miniMarathon medal to Audrey Nethery in a special ceremony following the races. Klensch has run all four years for Nethery, an 8-year-old with Diamond Blackfan Anemia, a rare genetic syndrome that causes her bone marrow to produce too few red blood cells.

Running has become an important stress reliever for Klensch during her years in medical school, but she says she is even more grateful for the relationship she has built with Nethery and her family.

“When it’s raining or I don’t want to run some days, I remember that I could be in treatment for years for a condition that’s out of my control,” Klensch says. “It helps me remember the bigger picture of the people we are treating. It has shaped how I will do things and treat patients as a physician.”

(M4M) is an international organization that allows endurance athletes to donate their awards to critically ill individuals in honor of their courage in the face of life-threatening illnesses. The UofL program helps health professional students see the struggles of the children and their families who are dealing with cancer and life-threatening diseases, giving them a deeper understanding of the patients they will treat as practicing physicians.

This year’s UofL Medals4Mettle program was supported by Stock Yards Bank and Trust, Pacers and Racers, Pure Barre, Home Fit, 413 fitness and UofL Pediatrics.��

It is the 9^th year the UofL School of Medicine has participated in the event, which features an official Medals4Mettle Award Ceremony after the race – 3 p.m. at Kosair Charities Clinical & Translational Research Building lobby, 505 S. Hancock St.

The program was recently featured in , which includes a profile of one of the “buddy” pairs – UofL student Natalie Spiller and Moriah Bonner, a toddler battling sickle cell anemica. Another patient’s father chased Spiller along last year’s route to express his appreciation for her effort.

The Medals4Mettle program was started by Steven Isenberg, an Indianapolis surgeon, who presented his 2003 Chicago Marathon medal to a friend battling prostate cancer.

Then-student Riley Jones brought the program to UofL’s School of Medicine in 2009 with support from former Chief of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Salvatore J. Bertolone Jr.

The first year included 11 med school participants. Last year’s event featured 87 students, including Spiller.

Read more .��

Hodge earned the medal for completing a 13.1-mile test of courage and endurance. Carra, a patient with the UofL Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, is running a race of another kind. She was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare type of brain tumor, in 2009 and has been battling the disease ever since. Hodge presented the medal in recognition of Carra’s courage and determination in battling her disease.

“While we may be giving these patients our race medals, their mettle gives us so much more in return,” Hodge said. “I know my future medical practice will be better because of the courage and resilience I have witnessed in Carra and her family.”

Hodge and 86 other University of Louisville medical students ran the Derby Festival races on April 30 and presented their medals to pediatric patients battling cancer or a blood disease in a ceremony at the Kosair Charities Clinical and Translational Research Building on UofL’s health sciences campus. It was the eighth year UofL students participated in (M4M), an international organization in which endurance athletes donate their awards to critically ill individuals in honor of their courage in the face of life-threatening illnesses.

The UofL chapter of M4M is unique in that the students spend time with the patients before the race, and often run for the same patient year after year. The relationships with their buddies give the students a more intimate understanding of how cancer and life-threatening diseases affect the children and their families, adding a personal dimension to their training to become physicians.

“Medals4Mettle bridges the art and science of medicine. We teach the students about B- and T-cell leukemia, but through this program, they learn the diseases also have names like Mark, Mary and Juliette, that they laugh and they cry and live in families that are affected by the challenges faced in fighting these illnesses,” said Salvatore J. Bertolone Jr., MD, retired professor and previous chief of pediatric oncology and hematology at UofL, who has supported UofL M4M since its inception.

“In a lot of our training, especially in the third year, we are learning what kind of questions to ask. What is the history I need from this patient right now to make the decision that I need to make and get on to the next one,” said Samantha Heidrich, a third-year student and M4M participant. “Through my experience with my buddy Damarys and her family, I have learned there are so many other questions I could and should be asking that will help me make those decisions. What is mom’s work schedule? Can they get care for her little brother when they are coming to the clinic? It’s made me think about the whole patient and the whole family and how we care for them as a unit.”

Heidrich, who has been a distance runner since she was a child, says training for the race also improves her personal wellbeing.

“I have built some really good relationships with my classmates through training. It was a way to build camaraderie, it was a way to release yourself from the study environment for a while, which is a wellness aspect that is sometimes overlooked in our medical education,” Heidrich said.

Fourth-year student McKenzie Vater, who has been involved in the program throughout her medical school training, wrote a scholarly article about UofL M4M that was published in the January issue of the . She surveyed previous participants about the program’s value in medical education and patient relationships. Her research showed that the students and the patients and their families benefited from the interaction.

 “Getting to know and understand the patient as a whole person allows for increased confidence in a physician,” Vater wrote in the article. “This relationship can provide the foundation for patients’ trust, allowing for improvement in patient satisfaction and health care outcomes overall.”

After graduating from UofL School of Medicine this month, Vater will begin her residency training in pediatrics at Vanderbilt University, where she hopes to help establish an M4M chapter similar to the one at UofL.