Kevin Allison shows us pictures and medals from marathons of the past. He's been running most of his life and says he enjoys the challenge. But he knows its nothing like the adversity his niece is facing these days. Tasha Hernandez is fighting cancer. Last October Kevin says he stumbled across a national program that might help Tasha on her journey.

“I think the whole idea for “Medals 4 Mettle” is encouragement. If I can say it in 1 word,” says Kevin.

Kevin says he wants to bring the Medals 4 Mettle program to Northern Nevada. He's willing to donate some of his own marathon medals. But he knows that won't even be close to enough needed to encourage some local hospital patients through their rigorous medical treatment.

That's when he approached Eclipse Running of Reno on McCarran and Lakeside Drive to see if the running store could be a drop off point.

Lane Martin with Eclipse says the store thought the program was a worthwhile one. Especially he says since many medals are just lying around the house somewhere.

“Just kind of collecting them in a shoebox or something like that. So its nice they can actually do something with the medals, they get to be a positive thing,” says Martin.

Martin says he has about two dozen marathon medals so far. Many runners are happy to make the contribution.

Kevin says like they he knows he's not giving up anything, rather giving encouragement and hope to those who are running the race of their lives.

If you would like to know more about Medals 4 Mettle and how you can contribute please go to “Hot Topics.”