When I chose to participate in the PMC, I wasn't quite sure why I wanted to ride, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Through the training process, you naturally learn more about the PMC and the incredible advances in cancer research they've been able to support, but you also spend an awful lot of time on the seat of your bike.

While I'm on the bike, I often find myself thinking of two people in particular; two long-time friends. One, cancer free for a couple of years after a diagnosis of non-hodgkins lymphoma; the other, in the thick of the battle with colon cancer. Two childhood friends, youth football and lacrosse teammates, college drinking buddies, and all-around good guys, faced with an unimaginable circumstance far outside of their control. As a friend, you don't know what to say or how to make it easier. You simply do what you can, you have their back, and you show them how much you care. For when I don't know what to say, this is how I can show them I care.

I'm a proud participant in the Pan-Mass Challenge - a bike-a-thon that raises more money for charity than any other single athletic fundraising event in the country - to bring us Closer by the Mile to a cure for cancer.

Since its founding in 1980, PMC riders like me have raised more than $1 billion for lifesaving cancer research, treatment and patient care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the country's top cancer care hospitals. My PMC is making a difference in the lives of patients at Dana-Farber and around the world. The funds I raise support the innovative work of doctors, nurses, and scientists in their search for cures for cancers and related diseases.

100 percent of every dollar I raise goes directly to Dana-Farber, meaning that your donation has a real impact! Please donate to my PMC fundraising and help me reach my fundraising goal.