Sideline Stories: Yasir Salem

Yasir Salem is a man on a mission. Beginning with the NYC marathon in 2018, Yasir will run 50 marathons in 50 states, including the Maine Marathon on October 6. Yasir is taking on this enormous feat to honor his late wife, Gweneviere (Gwen) who passed away July 2018, two months after a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. Yasir is also running to raise money for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation, a non-profit he started after his wife’s diagnosis to spread awareness for early detection. He has raised over $50,000, and his journey is just beginning.
While the “50 in 50” initiative may be new, distance running has been an important part of life for both Yasir and Gwen since 2008. After Gwen recovered from a meningioma brain tumor and the short-term memory loss that occurred after its removal, she and Yasir began running marathons together. Over eight years they completed eight marathons together, including seven New York City Marathons the Harrisburg marathon. She also harnessed her challenges following brain surgery into inspiration for music and writing, recording an album, and beginning a memoir.
Gwen went on to graduate with honors from NYU with a degree in creative writing, attended Juilliard for music theory and was accepted into Columbia’s MFA program where she was due to start Fall 2018. 10 years after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, a rare form of lung cancer took her life on July 22, 2018, at the age of 47.
Yasir is passionate about continuing Gwen’s legacy to encourage early detection. If you are interested in learning more about her story, please click here: https://storycorps.org/animation/marking-the-distance/