I ride in memory of a fantastic person and better friend Eric Chase, who died at the age of 21 in June of 2012 after an all too brief battle with Leukemia. All of the money I raise will be going to The Eric Chase Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and directed to Phase II Leukemia Immunotherapy Vaccine Trials, being performed by Dr. Vincent Ho, Eric's primary doctor.
In December of his senior year of college as an honors chemistry student at the University of Vermont, Eric Chase was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.
In November of that year he came to visit me for a fantastic weekend in Boston that I wish I remembered better. He also visited me in October of the year before, happened to be there for my first Quidditch game, and barely made fun of me while I tripped over my broomstick.
Senior year in high school he made a habit of putting my car in neutral and rolling it off the parking lot into the woods, sometimes covering it in grass in an attempt to further hide it from view. He introduced me to Ultimate that year, and gave me my first beer. I was at his house nearly every day after (and sometimes during) school.
Junior year we won our first tennis match as a doubles team. We also “supervised” the JV cross-country ski team. When he got a varsity pin at the end of the season and I didn’t, our beloved Coach Conlin told us it was fine, we could just share. I refused to give him a ride home after he spent nearly an hour getting balloons out of my car because I was not yet seventeen. He frequently forgot to wear cold weather attire to the football games for Pep-Band, but acted like he didn’t mind.
Sophomore year Eric got me to join the ski team. On the tennis team we were doubles partners for the entire season. We did not win a match. He went on a ski trip to Colorado and I was jealous so I told him he should break something and then he did and I felt bad. We played much more glow in the dark ping-pong than you would expect, given that very little of our equipment glowed in the dark.
Freshman year we dissected a squid in Biology, by which I mean Eric dissected a squid in Biology. It looked slimy. We both tried out for the tennis team, and it came down to the two of us. I made the team and he didn’t, but he came to half the practices anyways.
All through high school we were together for 2 (and a half) seasons of tennis, 3 ski seasons, 2 years of concert bad, 3 years of pep-band, a year of Frisbee, probably over a dozen classes, and countless hours.
In 8th grade we were roommates for the Washington DC school trip. One night we came in to school late to observe the moon. Eric made fun of me because I was wearing my glasses, which was amusing because he always wore glasses.
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The day I was going home for Christmas break Eric told me that he’d been diagnosed with AML and would be at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for a while. I visited him once or twice a week over the next couple of months during his first stay. We watched the New Years fireworks from the top floor of the hospital. Throughout his time at the hospital, particularly during his first stint, Eric was incredibly upbeat, optimistic, and open about his progress.
Eric initially achieved remission, but required a stem cell transplant. Though his donor was a perfect match, he died of graft versus host disease on June 28th 2012, just six short months after his diagnosis.
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100% of the money you donate will be given to The Eric Chase Fund, a long-term relationship formed with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. You will be supporting the research of Dr. Richard Stone and Dr. Vincent Ho, the two doctors who treated Eric over those six months.
