One of the fastest high school runners in the Tri-Lakes region, Francis has been on the Lake Placid cross country team since grade 7 and has consistently placed near the top of the pack in most races. He will be competing at the collegiate level next year at Nazareth University, where he’ll run on the varsity cross country and track teams.

But his running career almost never happened.

When Francis was 18 months old, it was discovered he had a rare neural tube defect. The neural tube is the precursor to the central nervous system during fetal development. It normally folds in and closes on its own as the brain and spinal cord form, but in Francis’ case, it didn’t.

That defect nearly left him paralyzed from the waist down — likely for the rest of his life. However, he was able to receive a mobility-saving surgery through Vermont Children’s Hospital.

“Without that surgery, I wouldn’t be walking like I am right now,” he said.

Now Francis wants to give back to the place that made life, as he knows it, possible. Scheduled to run the full 26.2 miles of the Lake Placid Marathon, he is sharing his story with the goal of raising $1,000 for Vermont Children’s Hospital.

It’s part of Francis’ senior capstone project at Lake Placid High School, which requires at least 30 hours of effort. He’ll do most of that through his training and eventual running of the marathon. He started his training at around 20 miles per week and peaked around 50, before tapering down to rest and refuel his body in the weeks leading up to the event. He even took off his senior track season to work on this project.

Francis will also make a presentation in front of LPHS faculty, staff and community members on his project and what he did to make it a successful fundraiser.

Part of that, Francis said, was identifying an organization that’s so crucial to the region. He said the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital is the nearest healthcare center to provide hyper-specialized care for young people. Without it, families would have to travel much further, potentially compromising treatment or, at the least, making it much more disruptive to daily life for many local families.

“It’s really the only place around here where you can get specialists like that,” he said. “It’s important for so many families around here who have young kids or are going through similar issues or need very specific operations done. … We need it there. We need to give back to it.”

This isn’t the first time Francis has used his athletic talent to help a worthy cause. During the coronavirus pandemic, he ran to raise money for local children to purchase books, all the more important at a time when education was gravely disrupted.

Francis — the son of David and Kelsey Francis of Lake Placid — said a large part of what made that fundraiser — and what he hopes will make this one — a success is the strength and tight-knit nature of Lake Placid and the Tri-Lakes region communities. To support Francis’ run for Vermont Children’s Hospital, visit tinyurl.com/3hrmcafw.