Friends,
Another year, another amazing ride! It never gets old seeing so many cancer survivors riding, volunteering and expressing their gratitude for everyone coming together to raise money to beat cancer!
Unfortunately, cancer still has a winning record and this year, claimed the life of the truly fearless leader, Diane Legg (pictured above), of Team LUNGstrong. I have been fortunate enough to know Diane and be part of Team LUNGstrong for a decade and year in and year out, Diane was the inspirational leader bringing the 50+ person team together en route to raising over $5M for cancer research. Even when she was going through chemotherapy for her stage IV lung cancer, Diane rode on....in addition to raising three boys, having a very successful career at General Electric, running 5 half marathons and always being a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend. When Diane could no longer ride the past couple of years, I could always count on seeing her smiling face at the rider regristration the day before the ride.
Inspired by Diane's love, persistence and generosity, I have organized the Crimson Canucks, a group of very good friends who have completed 50 PMC rides and most importantly, four of their kids, one of whom, Kira Hobson, helped save the life of her younger brother by doing a stem cell transplant when she was 5 years old and her brother, Brett, was 6 months old and suffering from a rare form of leukemia, JMML. Cancer did not beat Brett and my hope is that the incredible fundraising tradition of Diane, Team LUNGstrong and the PMC rides on to the next generation and the amazing doctors and researchers and brave patients become the ones with the winning record.
Ride On!
mike
