Glen Ellyn Girl Overcoming IBD to Run Half-Marathon for Friend

A teenage Glen Ellyn girl who battles against both forms of inflammatory bowel disease—ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease—is fighting through to compete in the Allstate Life Insurance Chicago 13.1 [Half-] Marathon this weekend on the Chicago lakefront, in honor of a friend with even more challenges.

Chloe Kennebeck, 14, who fights a daily battle with her disease, will be running her second half-marathon, this time for her friend Daniel Hess, 12, who also has Crohn’s, as well as autism and cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome.

“Symptoms of the disease do not allow Chloe to experience her teenage years like most others, but she knows she is lucky and chooses to run for a cure to help those less fortunate than her,” a press release said, yet she has still trained fiercely to become a skilled runner, previously finishing fifth in the teenage division of a California race despite being the youngest contestant.

According to the Daily Herald, Chloe met Hess through her parents’ country club and has become an important resource for his family, providing the first-person perspective on the disease that Daniel himself may not be able to express.

"She was just looking for something to motivate her and to prove that she can still be a kid and an athlete. It was her pushing because she felt inside she could prove to be a normal teenage kid,” Julie Kennebeck, Chloe's mother, told the paper.

"When Chloe found out there was a child who had similar pains she was having but couldn't express himself, it really hit her hard.”

Chloe has raised over $10,000 for IBD research over the past three years, the paper said.