Elizabeth Marcus is one of those lovely people in Newburyport, MA who is one of Newburyport’s “unsung heroes.” Elizabeth and her then two young children, Erica and Jeff, lost her husband and their father, Howard Marcus to lung cancer in 1999.

Pippa Dorfman, their friend and Newburyport neighbor, lost her brother, Jeremy Dorfman to Bipolarity in 2003, and her father, Ron Dorfman, a year later in 2004, to brain cancer.

Three Newburyport tragedies.

A friend of mine who was dying at an very early age, leaving a young family behind, said to me, “no one is irreplaceable.” Not so. We are all irreplaceable, and leave gaping holes in our absence.

The death of Howard Marcus, Jeremy Dorfman and Ron Dorfman left gaping holes in the lives of their families, friends, loved ones and their community.

Erica, Jeff, Pippa and Elizabeth are paying a wonderful tribute to Howard, Jeremy and Ron, called Leave Cancer in the Dust.

Erica, Jeff and Pippa are riding their bikes from Anacortes, Washington on May 15, 2008, with Elizabeth Marcus driving the van. They are biking 3,500 miles across the country, back to Newburyport, MA, hoping to arrive in August 2008.

They are raising money, that will go to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for lung cancer, brain cancer and bipolar disorder research.

If you would like to contribute to this heroic tribute to Howard Marcus, Jeremy Dorfman and Ron Dorfman you can do so by going to the website Leave Cancer in the Dust.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport