When I was little, my mother sent me off each year to knock on doors to raise money for cancer research. I recall not liking it much--it was solitary and I felt awkward--but my mom told me to do it, she'd lost her sister to breast cancer before I was born, and I needed to learn how to ask for donations for a vital cause. When I heard about the PMC, in 1997, I knew I would have exponentially greater impact fundraising for cancer research. And I was determined--my mom Glenna Apteker Freeman died at 48 of ovarian cancer.

It turned out that all this so-called knocking on doors also helped me save my own life. After my seventh PMC, in 2003, I was diagnosed--through a newly instituted protocol for women at high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer--with DCIS, early stage, pre-invasive breast cancer. Without that diagnostic protocol, my cancer would have been discovered later at a more advanced stage. (A mammogram 6 months prior was clear.) Aggressive surgery cured me and dramatically decreased my risk of developing another primary breast cancer.

School of Hard Knocks? Hardly. I benefitted from cancer research. And this is why I keep riding, to raise money to fuel developments in diagnosis, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, tailored therapies, and more.

I ride in memory of my mom, my dad Sidney Freeman, who had lung cancer and outlived his prognosis thanks to new treatments. (How I'd love be embarrassed one more time by his kvelling about my riding.) I ride in memory of my cousin Paula who died of lung cancer. I ride in honor of friends who are thriving after treatment for cancer, including our Team Huckleberry captain Dave Grossman, who has been treated for Stage IV melanoma; Natasha Joglekar, who had ALL; Heidi Fischer, who has neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer (25% of my fundraising goes to her physician's lab). And I ride in memory of Hilary Olsen and Andy Kessler.

My family has been part of the PMC as well, hauling thousands of pounds of riders' luggage at Bourne.

The PMC's impact is measured in countless lives saved and improved, in new treatments and discoveries. This is why I keep knocking to raise money. And I thank you for your generosity.