Every year it seems there is someone I know and love who is diagnosed with cancer. Over the past 16 years I've dedicated my summers to fundraising and training for the Pan Mass Challenge because I know that the only way we live in a world free of cancer is through science and research. Progress in curing cancer is increasing. Survival rates are increasing every year, and Dana-Farber is at the forefront of that progress. Because every dollar matters, 100 percent of your donation will go directly to Dana-Farber.
I am positive I am not alone when I say that cancer has affected my family in many ways. I lost my Grandpa Hayes to cancer early in my life. He was only 59 years old. My mother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2005, I lost my sweet Granddad in 2010, my cousin Kenley has just recently made huge strides in her battle with osteosarcoma, and my father-in-law has been beating skin and prostate cancer for a few years now. All these people and so many more is why I will ride those 192 miles in August.
When my mother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2005. I was just about to leave for my final year of college. We seemed to catch it early and the doctors had a positive outlook, but I didn't want to leave her. My mother spent the next 6 months in chemotherapy. I drove home most weekends to see her, and thankfully by the time I graduated she was in remission. It was the first time in my life that I had seen my mother sick, and it had a huge effect on me.
In November of 2010 I got a call that my Granddad was in the hospital. He hadn't been feeling well. They had run some tests, and they had found a brain tumor. I still can’t believe how quickly it all happened. Within a few days it was clear that this wasn't something that he would not recover from. I booked an immediate flight home to Indiana. All 8 of his children and 25 of his grand kids came to be with him. I arrived on an unusually warm, beautiful, bright blue sky, November Saturday at the home where I grew up, and I was absolutely terrified to enter it. My Granddad couldn’t speak. He could only look at me with his big brown eyes. I kneeled, held his hand, and told him how much I loved him, how grateful I was to have him in my life, and how thankful I was to him for raising me, for showing up at all my basketball games, track meets, and every meaningful event in my life. At one point I became so overwhelmed with emotion I lost my words. I just looked at him and smiled, and repeated a riddle he used to say to me as a child:
Old Tom Tucker was a fine old man. He washed his face with a frying pan. He combed his hair with a wagon wheel, and he died with a tooth ache in his heal.
He looked back and raised one of his big, bushy, gray eyebrows in acknowledgment. It was a simple, silent last moment that we shared together, but for me it said everything - as much havoc as the cancer had wreaked on his health, it couldn't touch the memories we had built together.
My sweet cousin Kenley was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in spring of 2020 at the age of 9 after suffering a broken leg. Kenley has used her incredible attitude and superhero powers to overcome. Her strength through countless hospital stays and surgeries is proof that we have come so far with treatments and research, but we still have further to go.
The hope I have for a better future is why for the 15th year, I am committed to riding miles and raising money for Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Our mission is to provide Dana-Farber's doctors and researchers with the necessary resources to discover cures for all cancer. This year everything I raise will go directly to the Lowe Center at DFCI which is focused on Lung Cancer. 100% of your donation will go directly to that cause.
Please help me reach my goal of raising $10,000. I am so thankful for all the support shown to my ride over the years.
Thank you for your time and donation,
Lesley
