Cancer is personal to Jason Maxwell, but he considers fighting back a communal endeavor. He brings his determination and skill as a business leader to the challenge.
Jason is founder and president of MassPay, a payroll and insurance services company based in Beverly, Mass. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that has also helped him rally his employees to work together to help fight cancer.
Jason was 9 years old when his father succumbed to cancer after a long battle that often took him away from his family for treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Because of this experience, Jason strongly supports Mass General-North Shore Cancer Center, which enables patients and families in his community to obtain world-class cancer care close to home.
“One of the gifts my father passed on to me was his fighting spirit,” Jason wrote in a speech to promote the center’s main fundraiser, the annual North Shore Cancer WALK-RUN. “That legacy is part of what drove me to join the battle against cancer.”
In 2012, Jason chaired the event, which drew more than 6,000 walkers and 550 runners and raised more than $915,000.
Participants included members of Jason’s team from Fed Up With Cancer, the nonprofit he founded in 2010 to rally friends, neighbors and co-workers around fundraisers that support cancer research and prevention. In addition to participating in the North Shore Cancer WALK/RUN each year since 2010, the group also holds an annual fundraiser, which includes food tastings, entertainment and an auction, all to help raise additional money to donate to the WALK.
Jason also wrote in his speech, “I can’t think of a better way to honor those we’ve lost to cancer.”
