Annette Lavery - Pan Mass Cycling SUPPORT 2025 - 8/2 & 8/3

Hello Everyone!

I Hope everyone and your families are healthy and happy! Words can not express how grateful I am for all of you! Your continued love, friendship and moral and financial support provided to me for this annual event is incredible!

I have signed up once again for the Pan Mass Challenge (year 9) With your support we have raised over $60K total. Thank You! I can not do this with out all of you... I wanted to ask for your support once again for this very worthwhile cause. As you know it is very near and dear to my heart.. It is a great way to honor my beautiful, deceased wife Annette who loved life and the sport of cycling. It also honors many others who have battled, are battling and may in the future face this disease and other forms of cancer. The goal is to find a cure to this terrible disease that shortened Annette's time here with us and does the same for many other families who have had Glioblastoma and other forms of cancer. Dana Farber is an incredible hospital and all proceeds go to support their great work to find a cure. Pleasesupport if you are able.

As I get older I am constantly reminded how fragile and short life can be. There have been a lot of losses especially in the last decade and have many friends and family members are battling various illnesses today. This is a small way that with your help I can give back to support a cure.. I am committed to doing this as long as I can ride.

As always no donation is too small, it all counts you can follow the instructions here and there are numerous ways to contribute. Please don't hesitate to call if you need help.

Above is one of my favorite photos of Annette and I in younger years. She is sporting her Cross, John Lennon glasses and the backwards cap...

YOU CAN DONATE Via facebook, the E-MAIL link, u.s. MAIL or Venmo (only from phone not computer) . MY RIDER ID IS TL0153.

See the links below..

PMC ID: TL0153

Personalized Links:
Profile Page
Donation Page

PMC HQ address for special handling checks:
Thomas Lavery TL0153
Pan-Mass Challenge Donation
77 Fourth Ave.
Needham, MA 02494

PLEASE REFERENCE RIDER id TL0153 IN COMMENTS ON THE CHECK.

Love & thanks to all. Call if I can help.. Or call to catch up...

Tom Lavery

407-619-2965 – tvlavery@gmail.com

2023

Hello Everyone

I Hope everyone and your families are healthy and happy! I have learned that happiness is a choice and I continue to work to make that choice every day. Everyone on here brings joy to my life in one way or another and I am grateful for all of you and the continued love, friendship and moral and financial support provided to me and my family especially against this event.

I have signed up once again for the Pan Mass Challenge and wanted to ask for your support of this very worthwhile cause. As you know it is very near and dear to my heart.. It is a great way to honor my beautiful, deceased wife Annette who loved life and the sport of cycling. It also honors many others who have battled, are battling and may in the future this disease and all forms of cancer. The goal is to find a cure to this terrible disease that shortened Annette's time here with us and does the same for many other families who have had Glioblastoma. Dana Farber is an incredible hospital and all proceeds go to support their great work to find a cure.

Who I am riding with this year is unclear as a lot of dynamics have changed with my team post covid. I should have said who I am riding with other than Annette. I will be doing the Boston (Wellesley) to Provincetown route and the ride is 8/5 and 6 and is close to 200 miles. I have started training and will accelerate this as the weather gets nicer.

The photo here is of my beautiful wife Annette. One of her favorite bands was The Cure and we saw them in concert in Atlanta in June of 2016. How ironic that she was diagnosed with Glioblastoma a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer within days of this photo. GBM goes by names like the terminator or is known as the white shark of cancer. It has no no cure the survival rate is 0000111.0 or something like that. This statistics and being told the outcome in advance did not deter Annette. She was always a fighter, She could not change the diagnosis, but fought to defy it.

The diagnosis was an incredible shock for an incredibly healthy vibrant woman to get this out of left field it was life altering/ending event for her and all close to her. We moved very shortly after her 1st surgery in Orlando and chased clinical trials to NYC and Boston. She underwent 3 surgeries and 4 clinical trials in a 14 month period. She was willing to literally go wherever and do whatever was thrown at her to beat this disease. She was so full of life and did not want to go quietly.

What was most incredible through it all was her faith. She said she did not want to die, but wasn't afraid as God had her. Secondly, how she conducted herself during it all - numerous tumors, vision issues, medications, chemo, radiation and all sorts of other physical and mental challenges, she kept her sense of humor right till the end. She was mostly focused outwardly on other people and how they were doing as she went through this. Just amazing! I was so fortunate and incredibly proud to be her husband, especially through this. Her daughters and 1st grandchild that she spent time with before passing were the apple of her eye. Her grandaugher Lily arrived 3 weeks after her death so i know she really had to go as she would never have missed that. I can not begin to explain the life lessons she taught me and my daughters, despite the pain suffering and difficulty how she and this experience made me a better man and my daughters the incredible young women they are today. I and she are eternally grateful for our families friends and all kinds of other people that showed up in so many ways to support us.

During her illness I had a close friend from the Carnation/Nestle days Ken Whitley who was diagnosed and we were on a parallel path with him and his wife Catherine and family. They way they handled it all was amazing, I also was connected with Kate and Jim Ekedahl through Dana Farber. Jim also succumbed to GBM and he and his wife and family handled it with incredible courage, grace and dignity. Lastly my dear friend Mike Caudill's sister Karen was regionally diagnosed with GBM. She is a mother, a sister and daughter and at the peak of her career and she and family are facing all that is put in front of them. The disease does not discriminate.

So as you can surmise this is not just a bicycle ride for me. It is very personal and a cause I strongly believe in. Dana Farber is an incredible hospital with amazing people that help manage impossible situations like death. They work hard everyday to learn and seek out ways to fight to eliminate this killer. It is also a sport Annette loved so no better way I can think of to honor her other than do my best to be a good person.

As always your support is so appreciated. Beyond words!

This year the ride is 8/6 and 8/7 and I will be riding from Sturbrdge Ma. to Provincetown.

You can donate here and I will send an e-mail as well with all the information. https://pmc.org Go to ways to give tab my rider id is TL0153 or just type in my name.

Love & thanks to all

Tom Lavery

ANNETTE LAVERY - Ken Whitley - Ro Clark PMC SUPPORT 2021

7/4/2021

Everyone,

Happy 4th!

Once again I have signed up for the Pan Mass Challenge which is on August 7th and 8th of this year.. I am living in Hampton N.H. and most of my training so far has been around here. I am once again riding with theKids 360 Team and proud to be with the JOH group of great friends again this year.Course options have changed due to Covid this year, but we ride on.

As most of you know I lost my dear wife Annette to Glioblastoma on November 7th almost 4 years ago and I ride to honor her memory and so many others that that have succumbed to cancer and for those who so courageously fight the fight every day.

I want to ask for prayers for Ken Whitley and family who many of you know. Ken has taken a turn for the worst, and is now in the last stage of his life. Ken has Glioblastoma and his courage and that of his family has been so heart wrenching yet beautifully inspiring to watch. What a display of strength and faith he and his family have demonstrated. They continue to conduct themselves with grace and dignity in the face of this incredibly difficult situation

We lost my beautiful sister Rosemary on May 10th to Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimers disease. She now walks with the angels... Please keep her in you prayers.

Annette loved the sport of cycling and can not think of a better way to do this other than live the same principles she believed in. My life and my family's has been forever changed in so many ways through this experience with my wife and all the unbelievable people I have met along the way. If you are receiving this you are one of them as you have faithfully supported this cause. Your support towards this effort no matter how big or small are greatly appreciated.

I find the key to successful fund-raising is to start early which as you can see I have not done here, but hope you can help me cover my mistake. I will send some updates and reminders periodically as I know everyone is busy.

We have our same pedal partner this year a young girl named Cheyenne Stockwood. Cheyenne is incredibly brave and resilient as is her family as she faces incredible challenges with a smile on her face. What an inspiration! Her journey can be followed on facebook.

Please see the link below where you can contribute, cut & paste into your browser as needed. I will also, put something on facebook asap if that is easier.

http://profile.pmc.org/TL0153