Palliative Care Expert With ThedaCare Used The Activity To Heal From Tragedy

For many runners, crossing the finish line is an exhilarating personal accomplishment. For Julia Stoffel, it means much more.

Stoffel’s path to running, paved with unimaginable tragedy, would eventually become a source of healing and purpose.

“Running has given me so much. It’s completely changed my life,” said Stoffel, a palliative care nurse practitioner with ThedaCare Cancer Care. “It’s really empowered me to think we have such an immense capability of doing more than we ever thought.”

More than a decade after losing family members during an act of violence, Stoffel runs in honor of her loved ones, patients and many others whose lives have helped shape her own.

Loss and Learning

May 3, 2015, was the kind of placid spring day that draws families outdoors to enjoy the first taste of warm weather. That was the case for the Stoffel family, who were on the Fox Cities Trestle Trail when a gunman committed an act of violence.

Stoffel’s brother-in-law, Jon, and 11-year-old niece, Olivia, were killed, along with an Appleton man. Jon’s wife, Erin, was shot but survived.

Just 27 years old and a new mother, Stoffel suddenly found herself navigating profound grief. The experience led her to question many aspects of her life, including her role as a hospice nurse with ThedaCare.

When she returned from bereavement leave, she told her leader she wasn’t sure she could continue caring for people nearing death. Her leader encouraged her to give it time.

“She said, ‘You might have a lot to offer these patients. This might make you better in your role and more empathetic,” Stoffel recalls. “And it definitely did so.”

Soon after the tragedy, Stoffel and her husband began grief counseling. Their therapist suggested they find an activity to do together, like running.

Stoffel was skeptical.

“I had never run in my entire life. I was like, ‘I think you’re nuts,’” she said.

Around that same time, Stoffel began working with her first hospice patient since returning from her leave. The man, in his 40s, had glioblastoma and often wore Boston Marathon shirts from races he had completed.

“He would ask me to take him out on his front porch at night after work. He just wanted to see people running. He would call them the after-workers,” Stoffel said. “He would close his eyes and say he could imagine what they were thinking and what the wind would feel like on their face.”

The two often talked about the prospect of her taking up running.

“It’s so hard, and it hurts, and my lungs burn, and it’s just terrible,” Stoffel told him.

He insisted that one day she would love it and it would change her life.

Despite her doubts, Stoffel started a Couch to 5K program, then signed up for her first race, a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. She mistakenly thought it was a 5K. It was actually 5 miles.

“I got to mile three, and I realized that I had two more miles to go, and I was not happy,” Stoffel said. She persevered and eagerly shared her experience with her patient. He died soon afterward and his words stayed with her.

A Life-Changing Gift

Her patient’s predictions came true. Stoffel joined a running group, made new friends and increased her mileage. In 2016, she ran her first half marathon in Green Bay. In fall of that year, she honored her family by running across the trestle trail as part of the ThedaCare Half Marathon through the Fox Cities Marathon. 

“I really think God gave me running as a gift at a time in my life when I needed it,” Stoffel said. “It changed my life in ways that my patient told me it would and that I never thought it would.”

She also continued to grow in her career. Stoffel joined ThedaCare as a certified nursing assistant at age 19. With support from the organization, she advanced through licensed practical nursing and registered nursing before ultimately becoming a nurse practitioner.

“The organization has always just been really special to me,” she said of ThedaCare. “We’re very people-oriented and community-oriented, and that has always really resonated with me.”

In 2024, Stoffel’s family faced another challenge when her father was diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 metastatic acral melanoma, a rare disease. During a visit with her parents in Florida, she signed up for a race. Believing it might be the last time her father would see her run, she wore a Wonder Woman costume to make him smile.

During the race, an idea took shape.

“While I was running that race, I thought, I wonder if I could do 40 half marathons by the time I’m 40,” said Stoffel, who was 36 at the time. “And if I was going to do that, could I raise money for something that potentially could have changed my dad’s life?”

40 by 40

She partnered with the Spierings Cancer Foundation of Little Chute and launched her “40 by 40” effort to support cancer care and research. The foundation provides financial assistance to local families affected by cancer, supports patient care and funds cancer research throughout Wisconsin.

As a palliative care nurse practitioner in cancer care, Stoffel sees the impact firsthand.

“All the money stays in our state for cancer research,” she said. “It’s out of cancer research that we’re really able to help people live their best lives and to stay alive. It’s like the hands and feet of what we should be doing as a community.”

Stoffel turns 40 in January 2028. With 34 half marathons and three full marathons already completed, she’s well on her way toward reaching her goal. She has also set a new lifetime fundraising goal of $10,000 for cancer research.

Today, Stoffel runs in honor of her brother-in-law, her niece, her dad, her glioblastoma patient and countless others she has encountered through her work in palliative care.

Reflecting on all she’s endured and accomplished, Stoffel stays grounded in gratitude. 

“I don’t know if I’d have gotten into running if I didn’t have grief to work through. All of it has changed my whole perspective. I don’t know who I’d be without the adversities I’ve faced,” she said. “Working in this line of work, you can’t help but have a perspective of gratitude. My mindset is, I get to do this. I just really want to help as many people as I can.”

About ThedaCare

For more than 115 years, ThedaCare® has been improving the health and well-being of the communities it serves in northeast and central Wisconsin. The organization delivers care to more than 650,000 residents in 17 counties, and employs approximately 7,000 providers and team members at 180 points of care, including 10 hospitals. As an organization committed to being a leader in Population Health, team members are dedicated to empowering people to live their unique, best lives. ThedaCare is a not-for-profit health system with a level II trauma center, comprehensive cancer treatment, stroke and cardiac programs, as well as primary care. ThedaCare also partners with communities to understand needs, find solutions together, and encourage health awareness and action. ThedaCare is part of Froedtert ThedaCare, Wisconsin’s most comprehensive healthcare system.

Date posted: November 5, 2026