Dear friends and family,

In just a few weeks, I’ll ride my 20th Pan-Mass Challenge to raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This year the PMC aims to raise $75 million and we have just pushed the PMC’s lifetime donation over $1 billion! The PMC represents over 50% of Dana-Farber’s annual fundraising and 100% of your donations are utilized by DFCI.

Quite a bit has changed since I first rode the PMC in 2001. At the time, I was a freshman in high school and was riding in honor of my grandmother, who had lived with breast cancer for many years. This was prior to my mother’s own diagnosis with breast cancer and her recurrence 9 years later. It was also prior to several important advances in breast oncology that have helped her thrive for 12 years with metastatic breast cancer, living life to the fullest, including as a grandmother. This was prior to my career in medicine and as an oncologist at Dana-Farber, a path undeniably influenced by my personal experiences and the PMC.

Cancer treatment has come quite a long way since 2001, translating into real improvements in the lives of patients and their families. We have many treatments which are more effective, some of which are better tolerated and many of which continue to be quite challenging. Researchers at Dana-Farber continue to work tirelessly to identify new drugs, new pathways, new diagnostic tools to improve outcomes, and to find ways to deliver excellent care to all patients regardless of their background, location, or finances.

Over time, my PMC training has become shorter and this annual letter gets sent later in the year. But I truly love the PMC and know that it is an exceedingly worthy cause.

Please consider sponsoring/celebrating my 20th PMC and helping Dana-Farber continue its excellence in research and patient care. You can donate at https://profile.pmc.org/PP0032. As always, I will be forever grateful for your support.

Most sincerely,

Phil