Sarcoma Sucks - In Collaboration with Dusty Harman

by Kelsey Ruocco June 19, 2025

Sarcoma Sucks - In Collaboration with Dusty Harman

My late wife, Jenny Harman, and I were married for 18 years. We have two kids, Claire (15) and Cooper (10). Jenny battled epithelioid sarcoma over six years. It was often times a very difficult path, and the culmination of radiation, surgery, and multiple rounds with multiple types of chemo robbed her of her mobility, her independence, and in many cases, her dignity and hope. We primarily did treatment at Duke, traveling to and from Concord for all of her appointments without realizing the potential support we could have had right here in Charlotte.

After Jenny passed away in Feb 2023, I knew I wanted to do something to raise awareness of sarcoma and to help families like ours, but I also kept thinking about the blessing of mobility and independence - because you don't know how much they mean until they are taken away. In addition, when people described Jenny, they often referred to her as being a light for them. This became sort of a mantra for how we talked about her and honored her legacy - for our family to carry on her light moving forward.

This all led to starting what I would call the Sarcoma Sucks 5k+ in March 2025. The event would include the standard 3.1 mile run, but would include a final cooldown lap to make the total distance 3.20 miles in honor of Jen's March 20th birthday and the first day of spring.

In doing the work to get the event off the ground, Start2Finish connected me with Move For Jenn. I reached out to Jenn and found her to be very receptive and generous with time and insight, and I really started to see so many parallels between what I wanted to do with Sarcoma Sucks and what MFJ was already doing so well in funding clinical trials and supporting families impacted by sarcoma.

My kids and I attended the MFJ Pajamas All Day 5K in February of 2025 and saw so many similar messages celebrating mobility and focusing on Being the Light; and the spirit of the event just seemed to be so similar to what was on our hearts. I knew this was an organization that was very much in line with my families' values.

The inaugural Sarcoma Sucks 5k+ had more than 200 registrants, and we donated more than $11,000 to the Sarcoma Foundation of America. As we were planning the event, Jenny's uncle, Jeff Grose, was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma. Unfortunately by the time the cancer was found, it was quite advanced and aggressive.

Jeff passed at the age of 63 in May of 2025 and is our third family member to succumb to sarcoma. Jeff is preceded by his mother, Faye Grose, who passed from fibrous histiocytoma (now more commonly referred to as undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma) at the age of 67.

All three were taken far too soon.

Our family is saddened, but not deterred by this most recent passing. We are more determined than ever to help support research that can improve efficiency and effectiveness of treatments, and to find ways to provide more support and more information to families like ours that don't know where to turn. We've seen that Move For Jenn is committed to this as well, and we love the organization's focus on transparency as they fund clinical trials that can lead to a breakthrough and create more sarcoma survivors.

We are very excited and honored to be partnering with Move for Jenn to raise $10,000 each for Sarcoma Awareness Month this July, which will allow MFJ to fully fund a clinical trial for critical sarcoma research right here in Charlotte!

Learn more and make your gift here.

More information about Sarcoma Sucks can be found at www.sarcomasucks5k.com.