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Caroline's Record-Breaking Team Brookline Fundraising

This year’s top fundraiser for Team Brookline was Brookline Center runner Caroline Fox, who raised more than $36,000, setting a new individual fundraising record for the team. She ranked #34 among 2,849 charity runners in the 2025 Boston Marathon.

“This run was personal for me,” said Caroline. “Three years ago, I had an acute mental health crisis and had nowhere to turn. I promised myself then that when I recovered, I would run the Boston Marathon and fundraise to improve access to care.”

Reflecting further on that time, Caroline recalls, “I faced roadblocks every step of the way in my attempts to seek psychiatric care. Initially, my only option was to sit all day at the hospital, without an appointment, in hopes of being seen. In the end, it was only with my own financial resources—out of reach to most people—that I was able to pay for the lifesaving care that restored my health.”

Like her fellow Team Brookline athletes, Caroline trained through Boston’s cold and wet winter months. When an injury threatened to keep her from the starting line, Caroline found another way forward—training tirelessly in the pool, logging countless miles of aqua running to keep her promise alive.

When asked what motivated her to keep training, Caroline remarked, “It’s the patients—the patients waiting for care.” She continued, “Even though my husband and I are Harvard-trained physicians with close ties to Boston’s best hospitals, I struggled to get timely appointments with qualified practitioners. If someone this medically privileged can’t get appropriate care, what about everyone else?”