'Nothing More important To Her Than Helping': North Andover Hero

NORTH ANDOVER, MA— When times are tough, heroes emerge. We all know someone who's making a difference right now as we live through unprecedented and changing times.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these heroes making a difference in their communities. Together with Ring, we're working to let all your neighbors know about these outstanding people and their stories.

This submission comes from Edward Lynch who nominated his wife Dianne Lynch of North Andover.

Name: Dianne Lynch

State: MA

Home town: North Andover

Hero's job: Executive Director charity One Summit.

Relationship to nominee: Spouse

Reason for recognition: She has experienced loss and challenges while always giving back via her charity and local blood drives. One Summit (www.onesummit.org) is a mentorship and educational foundation that brings together active Navy Seals with pediactric cancer patients and their families to work on PTSD and what they call post tramic growth.

We lost our son to cancer in 2006 and Dianne was diagnosed with breast cancer later that same year so we donate our time and support to many orgs in the cancer space, including www.golffightscancer.org, Jack Lynch Fund and the Joe Andruzzi Foundation to name a few. We also host one of the largest Red Cross Blood drives in the Merrimack Valley every Nov (this year Nov 14th at the YMCA here locally.)

One thing to know: Nothing is more important to her than helping other people

Thank you for all you do, Dianne!

>> Do YOU have a local hero you would like us to know about? Share their story here. Read about other heroes from across Massachusetts here.

All photos included in this post are owned by identified third parties who have given Patch the right to use explicitly for the Patch Local Heroes series.