Jimmy Fund walkers outpace recession

A week from today, Elton is scheduled to undergo surgery that may leave him with one lung, the second of two operations aimed at eradicating the Wilms’ tumor in his kidneys. From the enclosed bridge at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Elton, his mother Kim, father Eric, and sister, Alexis, 11, watched as people gathered below to kick off a 3-mile walk to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.

“I wish we could be down there,’’ Kim Rines said.

On Feb. 17, the Rines family learned that the series of fevers Elton was experiencing came about because of a softball-sized tumor.

He was supposed to start kindergarten this fall, but his illness is delaying the planned start by a year.

“It’s been traumatic; it’s been hard; it’s been life-changing,’’ Kim Rines said yesterday, as crowds gathered beneath the bridge.

Bright-colored T-shirts with the Jimmy Fund Walk logo were ubiquitous throughout the city, with about 7,700 people taking part in various events - some starting as early as 6 a.m. down the Boston Marathon route - to raise funds for cancer research.

While organizations such as the Jimmy Fund have struggled to raise funds in tough economic times, volunteers said they found it not nearly as difficult as they feared. Their $6.6 million goal was met, relieved organizers said.

“I did better than last year,’’ said Roger Payette, of Dracut, outside the cancer treatment center. “I thought it was going to be horrible.’’

Mary Payette said their daughter left from Hopkinton about 6 a.m. and was a short distance from the finish at Copley Square.

“By the time you get to Copley, if you don’t cry, you don’t have a heart,’’ Mary Payette said.

Trent Kelley, 8, was not able to do the walk last year because he was undergoing an intensive phase of treatment for T-cell lymphoma, so he went in a stroller instead.

This year, he was able to walk at least part of the 3-mile trek. For his parents, Rachel and Jon, of Pepperell, the walk was a reunion of sorts with the families who have kept vigil together in the hallways of Dana-Farber and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Although he has 10 months of treatment left, “He’s doing well - we’ve been really lucky,’’ Jon Kelley said of his son.

Gregory Conrad stood next to Elton Rines on the bridge and bounced around, tethered to a saline IV drip.

He tightly gripped a stuffed teddy bear with an IV tube taped onto its paw.

“It’s nice to see so many people out helping the hospital,’’ said his mother, Gina, of North Attleborough.

“That ends up trickling down to families like us.’’

Lauren Dunn, 6, and her father Walter, of Hull, stood on the bridge taking it all in.

Lauren “woke up one morning with a sore arm,’’ Walter Dunn said.

The family found out just hours after she graduated from kindergarten that it was malignant fibrous histiocytoma.

As the walk began, and the crowds looked up to the bridge and waved, Shane Coughlin, of Chatham, turned to his visibly tired daughter Emily, 4, who had surgery to remove a tumor last week, and said, “We’ll be down there next year.’’