{"id":200727,"date":"2026-04-17T14:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200727\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:22:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:22:38","slug":"marine-veteran-walks-from-long-island-to-staten-island-for-little-girl-battling-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200727\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine veteran walks from Long Island to Staten Island for little girl battling cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Marine Corps veteran is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/video\/marine-veteran-walking-from-long-island-to-staten-island-for-an-exceptional-cause\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">walking more than 100 miles<\/a> from eastern Long Island to Staten Island to support a little girl battling cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Hickey, 64, has spent decades trekking across the country, turning his footsteps into funding for childhood cancer. He&#8217;s logged thousands of miles over 40 coast-to-coast journeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He is a three-time cancer survivor and also lost his dad to cancer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I said, screw it. I gave up everything. I put on a backpack and decided to walk across America to raise awareness for a cure in memory of my dad,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hickey walks to support 7-year-old Lucy Dina\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hickey took up an extra journey from Suffolk County&#8217;s Wading River to Staten Island to support 7-year-old Lucy Dina. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lucy has been battling stage four high-risk neuroblastoma cancer since she was just months old.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/vlcsnap-2026-04-17-09h30m24s603.png#.png\" alt=\"vlcsnap-2026-04-17-09h30m24s603.png \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Lucy Dina, 7, has been battling stage four high-risk neuroblastoma cancer since she was just months old.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                CBS News New York<\/p>\n<p>Her mother, Laurie Del Percio, spoke about her daughter&#8217;s fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Watching her suffer, be uncomfortable, not want to eat anything, sleep hours and hours of the day, it&#8217;s been really hard for us,&#8221; she said. &#8220;She&#8217;s been handling treatment really well. She&#8217;s a trooper. She&#8217;s very strong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hickey said he heard Lucy&#8217;s story on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lucy doesn&#8217;t even know what a normal life is for a child, no kindergarten, playground, life in a hospital room,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Raising money for families with mounting medical bills<\/p>\n<p>Hickey is expected to complete his journey Saturday at the Curly Wolf Saloon on Staten Island. A fundraiser for Lucy will be held Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The family has also set up a GoFundMe page that has already raised more than $30,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Marine Corps veteran is walking more than 100 miles from eastern Long Island to Staten Island to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[13483,9,24,63,134,136,135,773],"class_list":{"0":"post-200727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-staten-island","13":"tag-staten-island-headlines","14":"tag-staten-island-news","15":"tag-suffolk-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}