Friends run for a cure for lupus, completing NYC Marathon in honor of longtime pal and lupus sufferer

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All marathoners have their own particular motivations for running a 26.2-mile race — and for Molly Anderson, Sarah Edwards and Laura Haley, it was to honor Rosie De Queljoe Herzog, their longtime friend who is living with lupus.

As a 30th birthday surprise, the three runners flew De Queljoe Herzog from her home in Los Angeles to the Big Apple, where she was able to cheer them on as they ran the New York City Marathon on Nov. 5.

Anderson, Edwards and Haley were part of Team Life Without Lupus, the official competitive team of the Lupus Research Alliance, the largest private funder of lupus research in the world.

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The four friends shared with Fox News Digital what the experience meant to them — and how its impact is lasting well beyond that one day.

It was in 2021 when De Queljoe Herzog, a public relations professional, first started noticing symptoms, including rapid hair loss, joint pain, fatigue, swelling of her face and hands — and a malar rash (butterfly rash) on her face.

Pictured left to right: Molly Supple Anderson, Sarah Edwards, Rosie Herzog and Laura Haley at the NYC Marathon on Nov. 5, 2023. (Lupus Research Alliance)

"In the early days, I attributed the hair loss to a stressful 2020 and stressful work schedule, but it turned out to be something larger," she told Fox News Digital. 

In early 2022, De Queljoe Herzog was officially diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, an inflammatory disease that occurs when the immune system attacks its own tissues.

She was hospitalized due to a lupus flare-up shortly after that.