NORMAL - Though the yellow wristband stamped "LiveSTRONG" cost him just a dollar, it's priceless to marathon runner Dan Crussell of Normal.

His father wore the symbol of the Lance Armstrong Foundation until his death in 2005. Crussell will wear it April 16 as one of eight people representing LAF at the 111th running of the Boston Marathon.

Crussell's stepdaughter will cheer him on wearing an identical band her grandfather wore before he died of lung cancer earlier this year.

"It's all about the bracelet," said Crussell, 37, of the 26.2-mile effort.

The Boston event will be his fifth marathon in six months.

Crussell, who works at State Farm Insurance Co. in Bloomington, was too young to remember much about an aunt and uncle who both died of cancer. Still, the self-described "Lance fan" wore the wristband and adopted the LAF motto, "LiveSTRONG." He appreciated Armstrong's personal victory over cancer, his seven victories at the Tour de France bike race and his efforts to raise money for research and help cancer patients and their families.

Crussell passed the LiveSTRONG message to his father in a Texas hospital after the older man was admitted for smoking-related lung disease in February, 2005. Crussell slipped the yellow bracelet from his own wrist and placed it on his dad's before leaving his side.

"LiveSTRONG ? that's what we needed him to be to get back home. He never made it. I got my band back and wear it and cherish it everyday as a way to still be with him. ? My bracelet became more important to me."

The grandfather of Crussell's two stepdaughters, Jamie and Dani Veal of Greeley, Colo., was diagnosed with lung cancer a few months later. They gave him a yellow wristband. Everyone in the family began wearing them.

"Those yellow bands became our rallying cry. Every time I saw Darrel, he would show me his band and let me know that he believed," Crussell said. "He never took it off."

In December, the girls' grandmother died suddenly from a heart attack. Jamie and Dani's grandfather entered the hospital the same day. He asked Jamie what he could do for her. She told him all she wanted was his yellow band.

"He took it off in the hospital and put it on my wrist, after the doctor said there was nothing left to do and he probably only had 2 weeks left to live ? a moment that I will never forget," Jamie Veal said.

"A week and a half later, he passed away," Crussell said.

After that, the family sought a way to heal emotionally. When Crussell was surfing the LAF Web site, under a section labeled "Get involved," he noticed the application to become one of eight people to run on behalf of the organization at the Boston Marathon. The announcement said runners also will be chosen for marathons in Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin and London. Crussell saw the fund-raising and the event itself as a positive way to do something about the disease.

He's raised nearly two-thirds of his $3,500 goal after a recent event at Buffalo Wild Wings in Bloomington, which donated the space.

Meanwhile, he's running about 30 miles a week and spinning and swimming twice a week. After Boston, he recently bought a bike to ride in RAGBRAI, a ride held every July that spans Iowa.

Armstrong, who attended last year, plans to ride the entire route this year to drum up support for cancer funding.

"I think everybody will face this challenge, whether themselves or someone they know. This is really a way for everybody to get involved in one away or another," Crussell said of his fundraising efforts. "It's become such an important thing, the yellow band."

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How to help

- Donations can be made to Dan Drussell's fundraising effort on behalf of the Lance Armstrong Foundation at www.livestrong.org/grassroots/dancrussell or through Often Running/Vitesse Cycles, 206 S. Linden St., Normal.

- Crussell will attend a members-only Spinning Challenge to raise money for LAF at Four Seasons II, 2401 Airport Rd, Bloomington, from 5:35-7:05 p.m. March 28. Donations are optional.