September 2024
Dear Friends and Family,
It's that time of year again! On September 28th I'll be riding the Pan Mass Challenge UnPaved- a fundraising bike-a-thon and gravel bike ride through the Berkshires in Massachusetts that raises money for research and patient care at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
This year's PMC is a bit bittersweet, since my dad's PMC training left him in the hospital with a fractured pelvis, collapsed lung and plenty of road rash. Even still, he's kept up his commitment to raising money for cancer research and donating platelets at Dana Farber and the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center. He even rode the last 10 miles of the PMC at this year’s summer ride in August—his first bike ride since his crash. Fractured— but healing! — pelvis and all made it across the finish and onto his volunteer shift.
Seeing my dad’s unwavering commitment, the PMC's accomplishment of surpassing $1 billion in donations to Dana Farber since 1980, and all of your donations over the years is incredible. It is a privilege to get to ride my bike for a cause like this one.
This year I'll be riding PMC UnPaved in memory of the family I've lost to cancer: my Uncle Tom and Grandma Betsy. My Uncle Tom passed away from pancreatic cancer at the buzzer of a UConn basketball game last winter. He endured months of cancer treatment, with loved ones at his side for every good and painful day. The same was true for my grandma who we lost to lung cancer in 2013.
With my Grandma Betsy and Uncle Tom around, you could be sure you'd eat well and laugh constantly, knowing you were a part of their family pack. When I'm in Rhode Island these days, I still picture both of them in their usual haunts- my grandma in her chair on the back porch watching over all us grandkids out on the salt pond, and Uncle Tom standing at the edge of the ocean as the beach day drew to a close, watching the horizon and shaking the water out of his spiky hair after diving in the waves. Grandma Betsy and Uncle Tom led the charge on all my favorite family meals and traditions- Lobster cookouts, the dinners of pasta, meatballs and garlic bread that started every summer weekend, fresh vegetables grown in their gardens, and endless trays of brownies baked by 'Grandma Sweetie' for us kids to sneak whenever our parents weren't looking.
Throughout my Uncle Tom's cancer treatment, these moments of cherished family time didn't change; when visiting the Douglas house during his treatment, we'd all pile onto the living room couches to watch the Yankees (Uncle Tom’s team) over grinders or mashed potatoes or whatever other food he could tolerate that week based on his changing appetite. The same was true for my extended family when my grandma was in the hospital being treated for her cancer; food, laughter, and time together were the medicine we all relied on.
Pancreatic cancer limited my Uncle Tom's ability to do certain things he loved like riding his bike to the beach, enjoying his favorite foods, or working in his vegetable garden. But it didn't keep him from offering me every tomato that grew in his garden the summer before he passed, his generosity surmounting the pain and fatigue he was experiencing from his cancer treatment. He endured unimaginable pain and caustic cancer treatment and he continued to care for his family through it.
The Pan Mass Challenge bike-a-thon raises funds for cancer research and patient care at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Your donations support patients and families during their cancer treatment. They also help fund cancer research with the hope that one day no one will have to experience the debilitating side effects of cancer treatment or lose a loved one to cancer.
If you have donated in the past, thank you. Your donations contributed to the $1 billion the PMC has raised for DFCI so far! And 100 percent of these rider-raised funds go directly to cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber.
While I was in nursing school, I had the privilege of working at Dana Farber on their multiple myeloma clinical trials team. The nurses and doctors I worked alongside at Dana Farber combine their profound empathy with excellent cancer care and treatment development. Laurie Glimcher (the Dana Farber president) puts it something like this: ‘the PMC supports our efforts to go above and beyond in cancer treatment: PMC dollars provide critical seed funding for clinical trials and innovative studies – research that advances early detection, treatment, and prevention of cancer’.
This year my goal is to raise $4000 for pancreatic cancer research at Dana Farber, in my Uncle Tom's name. My dad and I plan to ride the PMC UnPaved this year (assuming he keeps recuperating smoothly :) I am so grateful for any donation you can make to push pancreatic cancer research and care in the right direction.
Thank you for your support and donations; it is you all that make this fundraising happen. I just get to ride my bike<3
Love,
Melissa Betsy
www.MelissasPMC.com
