I had Osteosarcoma -- a kind of cancer younger kids get -- as a 16 year old kid. That required emergency surgery to amputate my right leg. I missed 3 weeks of high school after Christmas break for that and then the really difficult adjustments begin of trying to work my way back to some semblance of normalcy. Things did get better once I got the artificial leg. Then when I was a sophomore in college we found that the cancer had metastasized to my lung. That too was an emergency and I was then told at the age of 19 that no one had ever survived what just happened to me. But the miracle of chemotherapy was not yet understood -- this was very early in its clinical use. Yes, I was sick as a dog for 5 days a month for 10 months to get through this. I was so "burned out" that I left college and became a ski bum in Utah for a whole season. I had an ulterior motive: to become a really good amputee skier. That worked. I also discovered that I was not dead when the snow had melted. That was 40 years ago. Since then I have done a lot of things that are hard. But about 15 years ago I started to see that if I did challenging things like long distance open water swims or these kinds of long bike rides, that not only was it really good for me but I could make it really good for others. So here I am doing what I love to do and raising money for a great cause at the same time.

For the past 7 years, up until a year ago, my wife's and my "wing-woman" on these rides -- and on most of our weekend training rides -- was Stacy Kirkpatrick. She was also a cancer survivor and she herself rode in honor of many friends and relatives who were cancer victims or survivors. Then Stacy was struck again and seemed on the road to recovery but it finally spread too far too fast and she did not make it. I sat out the PMC last year but I am back again and riding in her honor. We are not there yet as far as cancer research and treatments goes and places like Dana-Farber are critical to continuing to make progress. So please be generous and help us help Dana-Farber who helps all of us who have had or some day might have to deal with this horrible disease. I thank you and Stacy thanks you!

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