Cancer is something that touches everyone. This past year it me hit hard. My close friend from college, Becca Kopf, died from ovarian cancer. I met her in my first week of college and we hit it off as friends. She was always there for me through college - advising me on life (and women), and generally helping me be a better person. After college we stayed close, even after she moved to Chicago, I saw her regularly and talked often on the phone. Even in recent years, as family and work got busy, we would see each other a couple times a year and she would always make my day feel more special. It is a loss that I feel acutely, and I am not the only one. She was an amazing person that touched so many peoples' lives and truly made a difference in this world.
In this, my second year riding the Pan Mass, I ride in memory of my friend Becca. I miss her and think of her often and I am sad that my kids will never really know 'Aunt Becca'. She was amazing with kids and loved them like her own. And I know that I am just one of many people who feel similarly. May her memory always be a blessing. I wish that no one will have beautiful people like Becca taken away from them. That is why I will get up multiple times a week this spring and summer at the crack of dawn to ride several miles before work. I will do this because I dream of a time when beautiful people are not destroyed by cancer in the prime of their life. I ride so that my children can grow up and not have aunt's, uncles, parents, or children taken from them by something that we can learn to defeat. I ride so that someday I don't have to ride anymore.
I have chosen to do the Pan Mass, because every single dollar that you donate goes to cancer research. Not 50% or 60%, but every single dollar. And the work that this has produced has included some of the leading edge cancer treatments in the world. So I hope you can help me reach my goal and help the world be free of cancer. Your support will mean a lot to me, and I will use it to fuel me as I pedal through the rain and heat this summer. Nothing can bring back those who cancer has taken from us, but with your help hopefully in the future fewer beautiful people will die from cancer.
