Run to benefit Seau foundation postponed

A benefit run set for May 7 to raise money for traumatic brain injury research in memory of the late San Diego Chargers player Junior Seau was postponed to later this year.

The event, scheduled to take place at Guajome Regional Park in Oceanside, was to be sponsored by the newly created Mary Seau Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Foundation. Seau’s sister, Mary Seau, announced last week on Facebook that the foundation needed more time to organize the event.

Alyson Jamison, a publicist for the event, said on Wednesday that the run will be rescheduled in the fall.

“As the foundation is building its infrastructure, we realized that it would be more successful to hold this event in the fall and we’re putting together the logistics for that now,” Jamison said.

Seau, an Oceanisde native who played the first 13 of his 20 NFL seasons with his hometown Chargers before moving on to Miami and finishing with the New England Patriots, ended his life with a gunshot to his chest on May 2, 2012. He was later diagnosed with CTE — a degenerative brain disease that sets in over a period of time after repeated hits to the head. Symptoms include depression, emotional instability, disorientation, erratic behavior and memory loss.

The foundation aims to raise money to fund research on the long-term effects of repetitive head impacts sustained during contact in sports, military conflicts and other potentially hazardous environments. Specifically, the funds were to help researchers at Boston University, who are developing imaging techniques to detect the presence of early CTE in the brain.

The research is led by Dr. Ann McKee, professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University School of Medicine, director of neuropathology core and chief neuropathologist for the National Veterans Affairs Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Brain Bank, according to the foundation’s website.

“When we launched our foundation in early 2016, we were eager to hit the ground running. That included spreading awareness and hosting events to raise funds for Dr. McKee’s early CTE research program,” Mary Seau wrote on the foundation’s Facebook page. “However, given we are just getting started, we feel it’s in our best interest to postpone the 5.5K walk and run to give us enough time to really make the event a huge success.”

Early registration for the run was $40 and it is fully refundable, Jamison said.