I've never done anything like this before. So I'm going big.

This summer I'm riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge — a long ride for a great cause. This bike-a-thon raises more money for charity than any other single athletic fundraising event in the country. I'm good at the bike riding part. I'm less experienced at the asking for money part, so help me out here:

Since its founding in 1980, PMC riders like me have raised more than $1 billion for lifesaving cancer research, treatment and patient care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the country's top cancer care hospitals. That's right, research. More than ever, new sources of research funding are needed. And the PMC is making a difference in the lives of patients at Dana-Farber and around the world. The funds WE raise support the innovative work of doctors, nurses, and scientists in their search for cures for cancers and related diseases.

Some of you may know that our family has been touched by cancer these last couple of years — two people I love were diagnosed with cancer too young. Thankfully, both were successfully treated. We were lucky. But we saw just how difficult that road can be, even for people with supposedly routine or treatable cancers. It's not routine. It still sucks. It changed their lives. Thankfully they could get effective treatments; thankfully, we had the resources to get through it.

I'm humbly asking for your help – even 20 bucks makes a difference. More is better, of course, but ...maybe you just don't care that much about cancer? I kid! I kid!

I've done a lot of digging into cancer/cycling charities, as a journalist — I'll just leave it at that — and the Pan-Mass is the best of them all. 100 percent of every dollar I raise goes directly to Dana-Farber, meaning that your donation has a huge impact on patients and researchers. Please donate and help me reach my fundraising goal!

- Bill