2025 will be my sixth Pan-Mass Challenge. It will be the most difficult to date. In the spring of 2024, my mom, Beth Vossler, was diagnosed with lung cancer. In December 2024, her sister (my Aunt), Diane Legg, passed away due to complications from the same disease after a courageous two-decade battle.
My Aunt Diane was a real life superwoman. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004. At the time her boys were ages eight, six, and one. Her cancer progressed to stage IV by 2006. Undeterred by the prognosis and associated grim statistics, she raised my cousins from boys to men, swapped her employment for lung cancer advocacy and fundraising and became a great support to individuals going through their own battles with cancer, all while remaining the life of the party. Diane funded LUNGSTRONG®, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, in 2011 with the purpose of funding innovative lung cancer research. Since its inception, LUNGSTRONG has helped fund over $8,000,000 in lung cancer research for Dana-Farber Cancer Center and Mass General Thoracic Cancer Center. The loss of Diane cannot be understated for her family, friends, and cohorts.
Thankfully for my mom, her cancer was caught early on, she had a lobectomy, and her prognosis is good, but I would be lying if I said I was not concerned for the future. Early detection is so important. Advances in medicine and therapies, driven by places like Dana Farber, give us great hope for the future. But the battle is not over yet. The money that we have, and continue to raise for Dana Farber, is critical.
If you can, please consider making a donation to the PMC to support my 2025 ride with Team LungStrong. If a donation is not in the cards in 2025, please know how much we appreciate your past support and, hopefully, we will connect again in 2026 to support Team LungStrong, the PMC and Dana Farber, and continue the fight against cancer.
