Ex-TV anchor called to charity

Like thousands of other people, former Channel 4 TV reporter and weekend anchor Sarah DeMarco caught the marathon bug after a friend persuaded her to run one, the Rome (Italy, not Georgia) Marathon in March 2008.

Her friend was running for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, and it planted the idea of DeMarco, someday, running for a cause that was close to her heart.

She didn't know the cause, and frankly, life as a TV journalist didn't leave her much time or flexibility to train and raise money. Still, she kept running. participating in Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon in December 2008 and the Chicago Marathon marathon last October.

Weeks after the latter, on Halloween, the 27-year-old DeMarco had her last day on TV. She left the business, tired of unpredictable schedules and assignments covering crime.

"I was losing my motivation," says DeMarco. "After I left the business, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, and it encouraged me to pursue other things I wanted that I was too tired to pursue while I was working in TV."

With an interest in technology, she landed a job at one of the Charleston area's growing number of high-tech companies, eThority, which creates software for business analysis and reporting, where she manages its customer alliances program.

The period of change also applied to her personal and running lives.

In early December, she found out that her newborn nephew, Joseph Baylis, who had been born with a cleft sternum, was diagnosed with PHACE syndrome, a term coined

for a condition in which a large hemangioma, basically vascular lesions or tumors, are combined with one or more other abnormalities.

In Joseph's case, he had the cleft sternum and internal hemangiomas, which threatened to block his airways. DeMarco says her nephew's challenges rallied her family.

"I remember driving across the bridge on my way home one night in late November and calling my sister," says DeMarco. "We were both crying on the phone. I guess we were scared mostly because we didn't know what Joseph had or what could happen. ... It was just a really scary time."

She recalls telling Adriane something her former roommate, who had recently recovered from a serious burn injury, had said to her: "God only gives us what we can handle."

"That was a pivotal moment for me," recalls DeMarco. "I suddenly felt closer to my sister and wanted to do something to help, not just Joseph, but others."

So in January, she set her sights on running the Lake Tahoe Marathon on Sept. 26 and raising $5,000 for the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin via the charity fundraising website www.firstgiving.com. The hospital has a Hemangioma of Infancy Clinic, where Joseph was treated.

She was astounded by the response, which included a near immediate response from her TV mentor, Atlanta's Fox 5 I-Team reporter Dana Fowle, who had given birth to a child with hemangiomas.

Within three weeks, DeMarco had met her goal of $5,000 and has since raised her goal to $10,000. She expects to have $8,000 committed by today.

"All of this happened since I got out of TV," says DeMarco, who doubts she could have pursued the new cause while in her old job.

"I work in an encouraging, motivating environment where the idea of leaving for a long run is welcomed," DeMarco says of her eThority workplace. "I'm working as many or more hours, but my schedule is flexible and predictable. Even training is better because trying to squeeze in a 13-mile run at 9 o'clock after being in Colleton County after covering a shooting for 15 hours -- it wasn't going to happen."

Reach David Quick at dquick@postandcourier.com or 937-5516. See his Running Charleston blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/running_blog.

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