If your here, you've read my email and know why I continue to ride the PMC (if not see below). Thank you for your support! Perhaps our legacy will be the discovery of a cure for Ovarian Cancer.
Scott
The arrival of spring in Boston commemorates many exciting events including Opening Day, the Boston Marathon, and my Pan Mass Challenge Appeal.? Two out of the three have already come and gone. This letter kicks off the start of the third - and the most personal of these events!? Last year, I rode the two-day PMC, covered 190 miles and raised over $4000, thanks to all of you.
According to Webster's New World Dictionary, the word challenge is defined as anything that calls for a special effort. As I consider the word challenge, as in the Pan Mass Challenge, it occurs to me that the notion is threefold. The first aspect of the challenge is the physical event itself. Can I successfully ride 190 miles over the course of two days under the hot August sun? I believe the odds are in my favor, as I did it last year and I am in better shape today than I was 10 months ago.
The second part to the challenge is the task of raising money. It is always difficult for me to ask others for money, particularly in the face of such hard economic times. It seems that we all have less to spare. To me, however, donating to the cancer research through my ride in the Pan Mass Challenge, is as important in bad economic times as it is in good. After all, cancer does not take into consideration our poor economy. There are hundreds and thousands of people who will be diagnosed with cancer this year regardless of US economy. In accordance, the Pan Mass Challenge even raised the rider minimum. The higher minimums are justifiable in that 100% of rider donations go directly to research. It is for these reasons that I am asking for your support.
Twenty-three years ago, I lost my mother to ovarian cancer. This year, I turned 46, the same age that my mother was when she lost her battle to the disease. I have lived half of my life without a mother, and there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of her. Being 46, my journey this year will be an extremely emotional one. My goal is to raise $10,000 and achieve Heavy Hitter status.
The third and, final challenge falls on the shoulders of the doctors and researchers at the Dana Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center. These professionals have made great advances in finding links between a protein called osteopontin detected in the blood, and ovarian cancer. This significant discovery may assist in the early detection of ovarian cancer, which is often fatal if not caught in its early stages. Ovarian cancer is often referred to as the silent killer, since it manifests minimal symptoms during the treatable phase of the illness. The difficulty with the disease is that more often, by the time it is diagnosed, the disease has already progressed to advanced, and sometimes, untreatable proportions.
Each year, it is estimated that some 21,500 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and, in 2008, approximately 15,500 women died from the disease in the United States. Early detection is critical, as the five-year survival rate is more than 93% when it is discovered in the early stages. Dana Farber is one of the leading institutions in the crusade to develop early diagnostic testing. One hundred percent of all of your donations goes directly to cancer research and treatment. Together, we can help make this task a challenge which the dedicated staff at Dana Farber can meet.
In challenging myself to turn my mother's memory into a legacy, I see the promise of a healthier future in the eyes of all of our daughters. Thank you very much for your continued support.
Warmly,
Scott Weiss
