PMC 2025

This year marks my 12th riding in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge in support of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. I have once again signed up to ride the two-day event this coming August 2nd and 3rd, and have set my goal to raise another $10,000 which would bring my 12-year total to over $152,000. I am trying something new this year: I will start on Saturday morning from Wellesley instead of from Sturbridge. The day will be a little shorter and less hilly which will allow me to enjoy it more given my turtle pace, and to enjoy it with three of my Forza-G teammates who have struggled with the Sturbridge route for some time now. We are excited for this new adventure together!

This year has also brought an unexpected challenge to those of us invested in cancer research in the form of newly uncertain federal funding. There are very few of us who have not been personally touched by cancer, so this potential turn of events hits home for almost all of us. With significant cuts in federal support, the Dana Farber – and almost every other major cancer research center in the U.S. – will simply not be able to continue to pursue all the work currently underway and will instead be forced into the very difficult position of having to choose which cancers, which patients, which cures, which treatments to focus on and which will have to wait. This uncertainty means that your support – your charitable gifts – now takes on an even greater importance.

If there ever was a year to give big.. this is the year.

My commitment to this cause has not waivered. I have lost too many friends, colleagues, clients, and family members (both two- and four-footed) to this disease. I know the difference we – you and I together – make in this effort to beat back cancer. I am not giving up or giving in. I challenge you to don this same resolve alongside me. I invite you to saddle up with me once again for this year's ride by making a donation today. Someone you know with cancer needs you. So let’s get this thing going!

This is how my PMC journey started:

I began riding in 2014 when my good friend and neighbor, Bill Allen, was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Bill was an outstanding athlete and cyclist and had been a part of the PMC community for 7 years prior to his diagnosis. Bill ultimately is the one who inspired me to get back onto my bicycle after a long hiatus to recommit to using my passion for cycling to help others. Bill's illness reminded me that I have known - and lost - too many others in my circle of friends, family, colleagues and clients who have battled cancer. And so I ride for each and every one of them who will always be a part of my life - both those who are surviving cancer today and those who continue to live as long as I hold them close in my memories.

And so I am still riding . . .

For Bill who lost his 31-month battle with mesothelioma 8 years ago on June 8, 2016. I miss him dearly. He was an amazing man. An avid reader, a great conversationalist, an accomplished birder: Bill had a mischievous sense of humor and an infectious laugh, and a heart as big as any I've known. My friendship with Bill is a gift that I will always be thankful for, and the gift of the love of his family is one that continues to sustain me. For my grandmothers, Veronica and Toni; for my grandfather, DeeDee; for my cousin, Carrie; for my mother- and sister-in-law, Max and Joyce; for Asa Sharp and for Paul Saake; for Alex Campbell, Robin Wood and Jeane Robinson; for my Uncle John; for Bev Barth; for Mary Jane Hanson; for my friend and fellow veterinarian, Karen Stasiak; for our breeder Sandy Pistolesi; for Donna Westgate and her daughter Melissa and her family; my stepsister Shell; and for my father who I lost to prostate cancer in the summer of 2020 and for his friend Bob Ricotta who remains a friend to me to this day. And as a veterinarian who knows cancer is cancer regardless of species, and who knows therapies for 2-footed critters often work in 4-footed ones (and sometimes the other way around), I ride for all the animals who have blessed our lives with theirs cut short - too many to name - including my dear friend Mary Labato's beloved Calvin and my own Tigger, Kodi, Ben, and now Tucker.

This year, I am continuing to dedicate my riding and fundraising to:

• Allyson Denette – to honor her memory for her son Steve Denette (YouTube's Acorn to Arabella) and his family after Allyson lost her fight to lung cancer last August.
• Maureen Nash - to honor my friend who was so steadfastedly supportive of me in this work for the Dana Farber for so many years, and who lost her own battle with ovarian cancer last January. I miss you.

I hope you will be inspired to join me in the fight against cancer by making a courageous donation today. Your gift goes 100% to Dana Farber and every dollar literally works to save lives. I am humbled to be a part of something that helps make what they do possible, and I am grateful to all of you who make what I do for the PMC one of the most meaningful things in my life.

Thank you for your support. Be safe out there, and see you on the road.

Cindy

My Links

Susan F. Smith Center for Women's Cancers at the Dana Farber

Team Forza-G

Forza-G on Facebook