A Woodmere man diagnosed with childhood cancer nearly 20 years ago is running the New York City Marathon this Sunday and giving back to an organization that helped his family.

Jonah Adelsberg, 28, is an experienced half-marathoner who's taking his training in stride.

The Woodmere native is days away from achieving a lifelong dream. The marathon will happen days before the 20th anniversary of Adelsberg's cancer diagnosis.

"This has been the pinnacle of not just my physical journey, emotional journey, mental journey but I believe every other runner as well," he says.

"Like any other kid, I made a pile of leaves in the backyard and jumped off the swing into the pile of leaves and landed on my right side and unbeknownst to me at the time I had a tumor the size of a grapefruit wrapped around my small intestine that I landed on," he says.

It was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Adelsberg had chemo and multiple surgeries. In high school, he started running with his dad to raise money for an organization that was instrumental in helping his family.

Jonah is on Team Lifeline with runners from across the country. His personal fundraising goal is $10,000.

While he's running, the theme song from "Rocky" will be what powers him through.

"May be cliche, but my cousin came to the hospital and played it for me and that was the first time I ever experienced anything like that and the hype around training," Adelsberg says

The New York City Marathon is Sunday.