Dear Friends and Family,

It's that time of year again! This year I'll be riding the Pan Mass Challenge UnPaved- a fundraising bike-a-thon and gravel bike ride through the Berkshires in September that raises money for research and patient care at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

This year's PMC is a bit bitter sweet, since my dad's PMC training left him in the hospital with a fractured pelvis, clavicle, 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 road the last 10 miles of the PMC route at this year's PMC weekend-- his first ride since his crash. Fractured-- but healing-- pelvis and all made it across the finish and onto his volunteer shift.

With his unwaivering commitment, the PMC's incredible accomplisment of suprassing $1 billion in donations to Dana Farber since the bike-a-thon started in 1980, and all of your donations over the years, its 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 my 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.
Whenever I'm in Rhode Island these days, I still picture both of them in their usual spots- my grandma in her chair up on the back porch watching over all us grandkids out on the salt pond, and Uncle Tom standing at the edge of the ocean, watching the horizon and shaking the water out of his spiky hair after diving in the waves, as the beach day drew to a close. 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 'Grandms 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 was tolerating that week, and all be together.
The same was true when my grandma was in the hospital being treated for her cancer; food, laughter and family time 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 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, to support patients and families through their cancer treatment, and to fund cancer research with the hope that one day no one has to experience this horrible disease, or lose a loved one to cancer.

100 percent of all 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 have 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 their 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 have two guardian angels - Uncle Tom and Grandma Betsy- perched in their porch chair and beach chair- who will give us a boost up the big hills, and will keep me coming back each year to do the PMC to raise money for Dana Farber.

The fundraising deadline is November 1st. 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!

Love,

~Melissa Betsy

www.MelissasPMC.com

Donations can be made on this page, OR

via Venmo to:

Pan Mass Challenge with Melissa Sullivan-MS0447 in the comment; OR

If you prefer to send a check, you can write the check out to:

Pan Mass Challenge

With “Melissa Sullivan” and “MS0447” (My Rider ID) in the comment

Please mail checks to:

Melissa Sullivan

59 Hundreds Road

Westborough, MA 01581

Cheers!