Why I ride.

Cancer touches us all.  

It does not differentiate between gender, race, country or political party.  We are in this together.

I was diagnosed with CLL in 2007 at 40 years old, an incurable blood cancer.

At that time, life expectancy for someone with my grade of disease at diagnosis was about 10 years with the available chemotherapy treatments. I was hoping to reach 50.

I’m happy to report I turned 59 in May.

And that is precisely why I’m riding the PMC for Team Flames. Plainly stated, we are comitted to raising the resources needed to continue advancing blood cancer treatments.

I literally embody the the best possible outcome of PMC riders efforts, compassion, and dedication and we need your support.

Dana Farber’s research programs lead the world finding treatments for many cancers and with the future of resources to continue this life saving work are at risk, your efforts have new importance and urgency.

Following is a brief history of the care and opportunities Dana Farber afforded me to get to today because and I’ll try to keep a long story short.

Diagnosed at 40, traditional “chemo” was the standard of care. I was being treated in RI with Brown Medical School doctors trained and given excellent care. But when I relapsed I was in trouble.  I visited DFCI for a second opinion and found that I was extremely fortunate that an entirely new therapy was emerging and Dana Farber had a slot available. I was put on clinical trial for one of these new drugs and the results were miraculous. That is not hyperbole, my cancer vanished.

For more than 15 years, I was able to access 7 different trials that turned an incurable blood cancer into a serious, but chronic and manageable condition.

None of this could be possible with out scientists and medical professionals of the DFCI and again why we are riding and fundraising to do everything we can to continue this life saving research.

When I am at DFCI I see the kindest, caring people helping those that are the most fragile and vulnerable. Bearing witness to these caregivers, they embody mankind at its very best.