Pictured here is Marcella Marcheschi (L) with her sister, Gabriella (R). Both sisters and their mother participated in the Nike Women's Marathon Sunday.

“I don’t think words can explain what it feels like to be told you have cancer,” says Marcella Marcheschi, 28, of San Francisco, of learning of her diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma in January of 2008. “All of a sudden I wasn’t a young healthy 20-something any more. I had something in my body killing me.”

On Sunday she wore one word on her shirt: “Survivor,” eliciting cheers from onlookers as she crossed the finish line at the Nike Women’s Marathon and Half Marathon. Marcheschi was among 4,000 members of Team In Training (www.teamintraining.org) who raised more than $14 million to support blood cancer research and patient services at this year’s marathon.

Read more about her story here, in today's San Francisco Chronicle article.