On August 1, 2005, my Mother passed away from Small Intestinal Cancer. My Mother Joanne was only 59 years old. She also had Crohn’s disease for over 40 years. This illness affected her gastrointestinal tract and attacked her small intestinal area.

I am writing to you to ask for you to support as I ride for Pan Mass Challenge. From August 3-4th I will be riding my bike 211 miles from Sturbridge, MA to Provincetown, MA to raise funds and awareness for Cancer. I have already started my training program.

I am doing this ride for my Mom. The Crohn’s masked the cancer for an undetermined amount of time. My Mother dealt with the Crohn’s for over 40 years and battled the cancer bravely for the past two years of her life. In the Fall of 2003, she went in for surgery to potentially fix the crohn’s and that is when the Doctor found stage 4 cancer everywhere in her small intestinal area. She barely made it through the surgery and was sent into intensive care with a permanent ileostomy and the hopes that they fixed her crohn’s. When she awoke she was told that she had cancer and was not going to make it past 8 months. Her suffering was tremendous, but she lived an additional two years of life despite the chemotherapy she went through.

I'm a proud supporter of the PMC because it is leading a charge to beat all cancers. 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.

I must raise at least $6,000 per rider as a goal and anything you can contribute would be greatly appreciated.

Other people to mention that I will be thinking of during this ride that were affected by this disease are: Richard Allback, Sr, Marge Schmitt, George Belano, Frances Fisher, William Fisher, Bill Fisher, Gary Fisher, Christine Fiedler, Jean Allback and of course many more they will be in my thoughts and prayers. This is just to name a few.

Please feel free to contact us if I can answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your time and most especially your support.

Sincerely with Love,

Kristin E. Francoeur