Let me first say, I am asking you to donate money. Again.

But once again, it has been a different year. Very different.

This year I will be riding my 18th Pan Mass Challenge, which means I have been cancer free for 19 years. Sometimes my melanoma diagnoses and surgery feels like just a bump in the road of life. Lucky me.

For others, friends and their family members, it has not been a bump in the road. It has been excruciating emotionally and physically, and too many have not survived. Medical interventions and technologies are helping my pals Stephanie and Bobbie, who have recovered from their complex surgeries, and continue with 2 steps forward and ½ step back with ongoing protocols. Bill and Cousin Carl have had recurrences of prostate cancer, 20 years after surgery, and the course of care is now so much less invasive with greater likelihoods of survival. We all have too many dear friends in our hearts and prayers, who are in therapy/recovering from many kinds of cancer. We are so fortunate that so much research and therapy has been developed in the last 50 years.

The week after I turn 78, I will ride the PMC. On Saturday 8/2, I will ride the 85 mile segment from Wellesley to Bourne, my longest and always the most challenging ride of the year. I continue to ride on the Stem Cell Cyclists team, started my my dear friend Martha Gold, who has had a remarkable recovery from pancreatic cancer since last year's surgery at Dana Farber.

Now, more than ever, we need to support cancer research, as money that was committed to medical research around the country, has been heartlessly and thoughtlessly cut by the Trump administration. The Dana Farber Cancer Institute leads cutting edge research as well as providing therapies and cures. I am thankful for the practical on-going research that made my melanoma surgery successful.

Please join me by donating now. I ride to end cancer.

The Pan Mass Challenge is the first and largest athletic event fund raiser.  Every dollar raised goes to the Jimmy Fund of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Last year, with our contributions, the donations raised by this bicycle ride topped one billion dollars since the PMC started. You and I have donated over $150,000 since I began participating in 2008.

I've made a personal commitment to ride and raise at least $10,000. I hope you can help me achieve this significant goal. As always, my brother Joel and his wife Joy double-matched me, for each dollar I donated. I also match any PMC riders donating to my ride.

Please take the time and donate now at: http://www.pmc.org,or write a check made out to PMC with a reference to BK0087 (that’s me) and send to:

PMC, 77 4th Avenue, Needham, MA 02494, or mail/hand it to me directly.

Riding the PMC, I'm standing up for hope, good science, and for life. And to acknowledge and remember, that for some people we know and love, the cure has not come soon enough.

Thank you, and please join me by donating now.