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John’s March raises $14,500

They came out in droves Saturday morning, 450 strong, enough to warrant the words of a glue-on patch that proclaimed, ”John’s Army.” They walked, ran, led their dogs and chased their kids, some of whom rode bikes, around the 2.52-mile Infineon Raceway, 11-turn, hill-studded course to raise money for a cause most of them had never heard of months earlier.

But mostly they came to honor John Cardinale, the long-time vice-president of marketing, communications and community relations at Infineon, who has countless friends and supporters throughout the Bay Area and who was diagnosed with gastric cancer in March 2011, a condition that then spread to his liver.

Cardinale has taken an aggressive stance toward his cancer, fighting back with medical treatment, fitness and healthy diet regimes and a loving circle of family and friends.

He told the assembled crowd in the winner’s circle at Infineon that he was making the defeat of gastric cancer the singular focus of his life and he vowed to win that fight,” standing up, not underground.” Cardinale also saluted Diana Brennan, director of media and community relations, who coordinated the event.

Also present at the event was JP Gallagher, co-founder of the Gastric Cancer Fund and a gastric cancer survivor himself. Gallagher explained that stomach cancer is rarely seen in young, healthy people and not much information and support was publicly available. Gastric cancer is relatively obscure, he explained, even though about 22,000 Americans are diagnosed with it annually, about half of whom die from it.

Gallagher praised Cardinale’s spirit and his willingness to take his story and his campaign public.

By the end of the inaugural John’s March, at least $14,500 had been raised.