Last year was my first PMC and I was hooked. It is inspirational to ride with so many amazing men and women (and kids !) who have committed time, energy, and funds to raising money for cancer research. This year, I am riding because as long as I can peddle a bike, I am doing something very important in honor of all those who fight cancer everyday, those who support and love those folks and the very important doctors who are searching for a cure... While 100% of PMC funds raised go towards fighting cancer in general at the Dana Farber, I am choosing to raise money for TeamBrent, which raises money for Neuroblastoma, a specific type of cancer that affects chidlren. I have spent my entire career as a child psychologist working to help support and 'cure' children with mental health issues, and so my decision to ride for a childhood cancer makes sense to me. I ride for the kids, for their parents, to fight for a cure to childhood cancer, so they can be kids.

Neuroblastoma is a disease of young children which requires extremely aggressive therapies to cure. Just over half the children with high risk neuroblastoma are cured these days, which is a vast improvement from 20% just 13 years ago (when TeamBrent first started). Neuroblastoma is caused by different mutations in different children and thus the treatment need to be personalized to each child's illness. If a patient relapses, the tumor is tested to identify specific abnormalities & make specific treatment recommendations based on the genes. Because of this, there are multiple studies going on in order to attack the disease in different ways. Prior years funds have helped to launch the personalized program and all the work in progress, which has helped improve the cure rate but there is still much work to be done to find a cure for ALL types of neuroblastoma.

This year’s funds will go to studies & trials to attack the disease from multiple angles: a neuroblastoma vaccine GVAX; other immunotherapy; targeting MYCN, ALK & TRK genes. The first $80,000 will go to hire a full time neuroblastoma program manager to support the work being done, ensure patients get access to all relevant clinical trials, and that biologic samples are collected to more quickly identify how to make treatment better for patients.

TeamBrent was founded by the parents of Brent McCreesh who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at age two and who has been disease free for 12 years. This year’s team of over 50 riders ride for the seven Pedal Partner neuroblastoma survivors - living proof that the efforts of PMC riders AND DONORS make a real difference in childrens lives.

I am inspired to ride again this year by the very brave kids fighting their cancers, the very brave parents who support them and the doctors who are searching for a cure. EVERY dollar makes a difference and if you can't ride for the kids, please consider a donation to my PMC ride. 

If you need any more convincing, please watch this video about teamBrent PMC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axL6towKLOE&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for reading and, of course, for supporting the PMC!

Annie