PMC-2021...Year 6 for me, year 9 for Evan's Crew! This team has raised over $1,000,000 already!!! I continue to be in awe of this amazing group of people and how enthusiastically they committ to this event every year. I am inspired by the generousity of the hundreds of friends and families that support us, many of whom knew Evan and miss him dearly, and so many more that are just blown away by his story and his family's journey.

Our goals are still the same and so are the reasons we ride. For those of you supporting me for the first time thank you so much and please read my why story below...for those of you returning, thank you so much and please read my story again, just as a reminder of why this means so much to me and to the Mandevilles and to everyone supporting Evan's Crew and the PMC.

Why I ride? I am riding for Tim and Aimee. I am riding for Evan. I am riding for a cure for DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma). I am riding because Evan Would.

On November 13, 2012, DIPG took Evan Mandeville when he was only 11 years old. My wife and I have been friends with Evan’s parents, Tim and Aimee, for most of our lives. Evan was born four days before my son Riley. We can’t open up Riley’s baby albums without seeing Evan, Evan with his big smile, spikey hair and skinny little newborn body. Our families were started together, we have shared so much of our lives together, and I can’t imagine a future without the Mandeville family in it. In October of 2011, prior to Evan’s diagnosis and prior to ever having heard of DIPG, I could have never imagined a future without Evan.

So, how do friends help each other through something like this? Go to vigils, offer to babysit or give rides, send food, offer money, visit…listen…cry? How do you help a couple, a family that was told that their son has a form of cancer with a zero percent cure rate…that their son, the funniest, most zany, untamed and adventuresome 10 year old boy that you will ever meet, is going to lose his ability to run, to play, to walk, to laugh, to speak, to smile...? How do you explain to your own 11 year old son that he will lose a life-long friend; not a grandparent but a playmate, a classmate, a teammate, a buddy? What can you offer to do for a family that is going to lose their child to a disease that the most gifted doctors and scientists in the world can’t cure? Helpless is never a place Tim and Aimee thought they would see themselves and neither did their hundreds of friends and family members that kept offering to “drop everything” and “do anything” “day or night” “just ask and we’ll be there”.

What Tim, Aimee, Josh, Emelie, Julia and Evan needed, no one could provide. What they wanted desperately was a cure. They didn’t ask for our help then because there was nothing we could do. But now, now they are asking, not for themselves, but for future children and families. The more money we can raise, the faster the cure will be found and the fewer children we will lose.

The Mandeville family has a practice that they employ whenever they are contemplating doing something a little adventurous, daring or even downright scary (like riding a rollercoaster or jumping off a rope swing). They quickly, silently ask themselves, “what would Evan do?” Would he climb this tree or ski this slope and the answer is inevitably, always “Evan would”. Those words are said out loud and often in the Mandeville household and in our household as well. They were said when I made my decision to ride this year with Evan’s Crew and they will be said before I ask each and every person I know for a sponsorship and a donation. So I am asking now, for Tim and Aimee, I ask for me, I ask for parents and children who may face this in the future and I ask for Evan.

On August 7th & 8th, we will once again ride a reimagined route through RI and parts of Southern Mass. Please support me in my ride and please help us all pedal towards a cure and spare other families from living the nightmare the Mandeville’s have had to.

Evan would!!

100% of your donation will be directed to DIPG research specifically. I'm a proud supporter of the PMC because it is leading a charge to beat cancer. In fact, last year 100% of rider-raised revenue went directly to support the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's tireless commitment to finding a cure.

From the PMC website:

Today, the Pan-Mass Challenge raises more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the country. The PMC generates more than 50% of the Jimmy Fund's annual revenue and it is Dana-Farber's single largest contributor. Over the past 36 years, PMC cyclists have ridden to raise and contribute $500 million to cancer research.

From the Dana Farber website:

Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) are highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumors found at the base of the brain. They are glial tumors, meaning they arise from the brain's glial tissue—tissue made up of cells that help support and protect the brain's neurons.

From THECURESTARTSNOWFOUNDATION website:

DIPG is a disease which strikes at the heart of childhood and it is a disease in desperate need of a cure. And at the same time, there may be no better place to start the search for a homerun cure for cancer.

DIPG affects the pons portion of the brainstem, rendering nervous system function impossible. Symptoms include double vision, inability to close the eyelids completely, dropping one side of the face, and difficulty chewing and swallowing. Unfortunately these symptoms usually worsen rapidly because the tumor is rapidly growing.

DIPG, for all its difficulties, presents an opportunity for all forms of cancer. It is one of the most resistant of all cancers to chemotherapy treatments; it affects primarily children (whose treatment has historically led to innovations in many other forms of cancer), and with a dismal prognosis, alternatives are few. Put together, these obstacles offer researchers a chance to revolutionize cancer research and prevention. It is even suggested that a cure to DIPG might result in a cure for almost every other type of cancer. For this reason, the cure starts now.

Watch this amazing Youtube Video that will help you understand DIPG in 7 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwYYtw1sgow&feature=em-share_video_user

Visit us at:

evanscrew.org

Vist the Evan's Crew PMC Profile Page at:

http://profile.pmc.org/TE0051

If you click on the picture of Evan and Riley on this profile page, you will see additional pics of Evan, his family, and some of Evan's Crew!!