Racing toward the finish line — and a brighter future in cancer care
The Mass General Brigham Eversource 5k Run-Walk supports innovation in cancer treatment at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. Click here to sign up and join us on Sunday, September 20, 2026. To support the Brainy Bunch’s fundraiser for the Cancer Institute, click here.
The Mass General Brigham Eversource Cancer 5k Run-Walk holds a special place in Mackenzie Saitta's heart. Last year, as captain of the Brainy Bunch, she helped lead the team's first race as representatives of the then newly formed Center for Tumors of the Nervous System within Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. Though the Brainy Bunch had long participated in races for Brigham and Women's Hospital, last year’s 5k marked a new chapter, bringing together staff from the many multidisciplinary departments and community sites involved in nervous system tumor care across Mass General Brigham.
“We’ve made so many strides together as an integrated center in the past year, and a lot of our relationships as colleagues began at that race,” says Saitta, the center’s senior project manager. “The Brainy Bunch is a real reflection of how far-reaching our center is becoming.”
This September, the Brainy Bunch will come together for their second Mass General Brigham Eversource Cancer 5k Run-Walk, united once again in a shared purpose: to make a difference for the patients they care for every day.
Members of the Brainy Bunch with team captain Mackenzie Saitta (right) at last year's Mass General Brigham Eversource Cancer 5k Run-Walk.
United in care and on the course
Established in October 2024 within Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, the Center for Tumors of the Nervous System brings together experts across disciplines — including neuro-oncology, neurosurgery, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology, neuropsychiatry, and more — to advance breakthroughs and meet the complex needs of patients with tumors of the brain, spine, and nerves. Uniquely straddling the Cancer Institute and the Neuroscience Institute at Mass General Brigham, the center is the first of its kind and draws on the strengths of a truly interdisciplinary team to provide personalized, integrated care for every patient.
“The Brainy Bunch is a representation of the center,” says Saitta, who also serves as the tumor division manager in the Department of Neurosurgery. “All of us coming together to run for the Cancer Institute represents how the team is coming together as a center in the care for each of our patients.”
Many members of the Brainy Bunch have a professional connection to the center. From surgeons to researchers to administrative staff, the team reflects the center’s broad diversity of faculty and staff. Neurosurgeon Linda Bi, MD, PhD, and neuro-oncologist Julie Miller, MD, PhD, are both clinicians at the center who joined the Brainy Bunch in June to run the B.A.A. 10K in support of the Cancer Institute.
“This was the first race of my life,” says Bi, who began her career at Mass General Brigham in 2010 as a resident and is now the center’s Neurosurgical Oncology Program director and the tumor division chief in the Department of Neurosurgery. “I am not a runner, but it was important to me to join this wonderful community. The energy of this team and of the Cancer Institute is palpable.”
Linda Bi, MD, PhD (right), with a Brainy Bunch team member at the B.A.A. 10K in June
Miller’s career at Mass General Brigham also began with her medical training when she started her neurology residency nearly 15 years ago. A former track and cross-country athlete, she signed up with the Brainy Bunch in June as a way to enjoy her longstanding passion for running while serving her patients.
“The Brainy Bunch team spirit is so motivating,” Miller says. “It was wonderful to be surrounded by people who are inspired to fundraise for our patients at the center and the Cancer Institute — all while participating in an activity that I love.”
That sense of togetherness that the Brainy Bunch embodies is an extension of what many of its team members feel in their day-to-day work at the center. “You have a finance director coming together with a basic science researcher, coming together with a neuro-oncologist, coming together with a neurosurgeon,” Bi says. “Everyone is together, pulling in one direction for one cause.”
Striding and striving for their patients
The motivation behind many Brainy Bunch members’ participation in races like the B.A.A. 10K and the Mass General Brigham Eversource Cancer 5k Run-Walk is the same force that drives their work every day at the center: their patients.
“Despite having cancers often associated with poor prognoses, my patients who have malignant tumors are some of the most hopeful individuals I know,” Bi says. “I think that's what inspires many of us to keep on going.”
Miller agrees, saying, “My patients and their loved ones are a constant source of motivation, and I’m inspired every day by their tremendous strength and grace. They possess such a special combination of optimism and resilience.”
As captain of the Brainy Bunch, Saitta finds herself returning to lead the team year after year, race after race, because she knows that another bigger race — the one for discovering new treatments and cures for patients with cancer — is far from over.
“While it’s incredible to cross the finish lines at our races, I feel like in the work we all do, the race continues,” she says. “Our greatest hope is that our patients cross their own individual finish lines in their treatment, and to allow as many of them to do that as possible, we have to keep going, keep getting better, and keep pushing the boundaries.”
While the journey toward that finish line may be long, members of the Brainy Bunch know that every dollar they raise brings them one step closer. And at the same time, getting out on the course is also a way that they demonstrate their dedication to their patients.
“We want to show that the Brainy Bunch and the team at the center will do something hard for you so that your care is easier. Someone on this team will always advocate for you and do everything we can to ensure that your care is seamless,” Saitta says. “For anyone going through a difficult diagnosis, know that you don't have to fight alone, to run alone. You have this whole team that will run for you and with you.”