I will be riding the PMC this year to help raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Please consider donating to support this incredibly important cause. 

To say that raising funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an important cause is a vast understatement. It is less important than it is essential, especially in my family.

In 2010, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although I was too young at the time to understand the meaning of the diagnosis, I can remember meeting her in her room most days after school to talk about my day because, as a result of the chemotherapy, she was too weak to walk down the stairs. I can also remember her letting my two brothers and me draw on her head once she had lost her hair and the happiness it brought her. The last thing she wanted was for the burden of her cancer to affect our lives.

As May approaches, she is coming up on 14 years cancer free and I truthfully cannot begin to think of where I would be today without her. It was facilities that were supported by The Jimmy Fund and the PMC that she was treated in and allowed her to overcome the cancer.

I will be riding the race with my dad and although we are not bikers and 187 miles is not a beginners’ distance, it will be easy compared to the battle my mom had to fight for several years.

I hope you'll be willing and able to support my ride and, more importantly, the patients and caregivers who still have their own fights to fight.