It's hard to make it into your 50s without losing someone you love to cancer. I ride the PMC to pay tribute to the people I've lost, the people who have survived, and to support those that are battling. I feel blessed every day to have my health and to be able to conquer back issues and ride my crazy bike as much as I like. When it's sunny and beautiful and when it rains all day, I count my blessings to experience the joy, the beauty, the discomfort and the pain. People know I ride a lot of miles throughout the year, but none of them are as special as the PMC when I get to ride with 6,000 other people raising money for cancer research sharing their stories. I hope to include you in the team with updates and make you feel like you're taking part.

This will be my seventh year as part of Year Up's Team Dmitri. I got to meet Dmitri Itzkovitz nine years ago when he and my daughter were in sixth grade together. He's a truly inspirational young man, both in the energy he brings to every day and to how he's maintained his resolve in his long treatment for a brain tumor.

His father, Daniel created a fund to specifically target pediatric brain tumor research. So far the fund has raised over $3,000,000 and helped fund a new clinical trial for TAK580 that targets the most common mutation for pediatric tumors (and the one which affected Dmitri). TAK580 is imminently going to be submitted for Phase II trials, so your contributions have made an impact! Your donation can help fund more research into TAK580. To learn more about Team Dmitri and the Year Up fund dedicated to Pediatric Brain Tumor Research, see the video here.

Thank you!

John