In 2019, my father and I rode across the PMC Provincetown finish line holding hands in celebration of the just under 200 miles we completed! But it was so much more than that... We were celebrating the additional memories, miles and years that Dana Farber gave us. Had we known it would be the last time we would ride together... I would have paused longer, taken more photos, laughed more, loved harder.

My dad became a patient of Dana Farber after being diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia with deleted 17p (#FU17p!). In 2015, I rode the PMC for the first time in his honor. He was a three year alumni rider at that time and I remember as a young girl in the early 90's, standing on the side of the road cheering him on. Two years after having a stem cell transplant at Dana Farber, we had the honor of meeting his donor. A young man from Germany who travelled to meet us with his family. From the first correspondence, they affectionately referred to one another as 'twin'. On the day we met, our families became one for life. When his CLL came back, he entered a clinical trial at Dana Farber and was currently undergoing treatment when he told me he wanted to join me in 2019 for the two day ride. I spent a lot of my life in awe of my dad and his strength, but this surpassed anything I expected. I will never forget the smile on his face as he lifted his bike up in the air in triumph after he finished. In 2021, he was in remission and planning our next PMC together! Even after a new diagnosis of Myelodysplastic Syndrome in Dec. 2021, he was still committed to riding for the fifth time in his 70th year. He died June 9, 2022 of AML just 10 weeks shy of his 70th birthday and fifth PMC. This year, I ride in his memory. I ride for our memories, the miles and the years that the clinical trials and treatment at Dana Farber gives other families. He is always in my mind and in my heart and there isn't a time I get on the bike and I don't think of him. He is, was, and will always be my rock.