Ates Civitci's Ride

Why I Am Riding…

My mom met her battle with cancer with high hopes, unshakeable faith and a resilient spirit of determination. Like anything else she did in life, she gave it her very best for a very long time.  Her message to others was  "Watch me beat this, don’t worry I am not going anywhere.”

I witnessed the toughest battle a person could possibly have had  with my mother’s fight with breast cancer.  The fight was long and difficult and was an extremely frustrating time for my family.  The strongest person throughout the process was my mother.  Unfortunately science and medicine was not advanced enough to match my mother’s spirit.  After a courageous 5 year fight, with multiple relapses, on Aug 20th2014, I had to say goodbye to one of the dearest people in my life, my rock, my mom. 

From the day I lost my mother, I knew I wanted to do something to raise awareness for cancer and more importantly to help others who might not be fortunate enough to have the support system and the resources my family had in order to go toe- to- toe with this relentless, malicious disease.  Cancer unfortunately has touched my family too many times and much more than I would like to remember.  After losing my grandmother to lung cancer in 2007, my mother to breast cancer in 2014 and now just recently in 2016, both my uncle and my aunt were diagnosed with cancer.  I have been relentlessly searching for what my mother wanted me to do, I but I struggled to find my calling. 

Last year I met Steven from Team Kermit.  After sharing our stories and hearing about Team Kermit, and the amazing achievement that to date Team Kermit has raised $3.1million, I finally found my calling.  This year I am taking the plunge to join Team Kermit and more than 5,000 other cyclists in the 2017 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, a bike-a-thon that raises money for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. This spectacular event raised more than $35 million last year alone-  100% of all riders raised funds go directly to the DFCI. The PMC holds the promise of helping eliminate this disease which affects millions each year.

I will be riding the 192 mile route from Sturbridge to Provincetown.  I am looking to raise $7,800 and am asking for your help in achieving this goal. Any contribution you can make toward my ride would be most gratefully appreciated.

The PMC is a way for me to honor my mother, but more importantly, please help me help others to be as strong as my mother was.  Better yet, let’s put an end to cancer altogether.

Thank you,

Ates Civitci

Donations are tax deductible and may be made online at http://pmc.org/egifts/AC0365.  If your employer has a matching gift program, ask your Human Resources department for a form, and follow the process for matches. To learn more about the PMC, please visit pmc.org.