The Will to overcome cancer. The Power to persevere. Team WillPower was created following the death of a dear friend, John Willett, who lost a courageous battle with melanoma in 2016. John epitomized the true meaning of the word friendship. He played a pivotal role in guiding many of our young sons through their formative youth sports years as a lacrosse and hockey coach in the Town of Duxbury. The team was formed by Bruce McCutcheon who had been a PMC participant for years for a very deeply personal reason, the death of his first wife, Sally, who died from ovarian cancer at the age of 39, not long after giving birth to their first child. Bruce began riding the PMC to honor his wife and to help others overcome their battles with cancer. Through the years our team has grown and the riders have varied but the mission remains the same: to cure cancer to ensure that families do not have to endure the losses that so many of us experience due to cancer. We have dedicated our rides over the years to our individual family members and friends in the community that we have lost including David Gardner and Steve Lenhardt, two remarkable pillars in the Duxbury community. For me personally, my wife Kyle was diagnosed with brain cancer shortly before our 4th PMC ride. This incredible team then dedicated their ride in 2022 to her fight with glioblastoma. This year, like every year, we will ride in honor of all those we know and love who have been impacted by cancer. We are also riding in honor and in support of a Duxbury High school student, Tristan Naylor, who at the age of 14 was diagnosed with leukemia and has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant and isolation for infection control. He is a warrior and we are proud to ride in his honor and all of the pedal partner patients at Dana Farber. We also ride in honor of another Duxbury High School student, Mason Allaire, who sadly passed away from his cancer just prior to our 2023 PMC ride. Continuing with Mason's misison to help others, we are proud to ride for him to raise money to find a cure for all cancer.

This year, our Team, has the great honor of once agin riding with Jay and Christian Willett. The Willett boys will be riding in their 2nd PMC and will be riding with the additional honor of paying tribute to their grandfather, Jack, who recently passed away. We will always ride as a tribute to the entire Willett family. In keeping with a Team tradition, Christian will be riding his Dad's triathlon bike, a bike that has ridden every mile of the PMC with our team since 2017. We are also proud to ride with our newest teammate, James Lawlor, who will be riding to support his family and his dad who is battling lymphoma. My boys, James and William, will also join us for another PMC ride. Having them ride with their childhood friends, the WIllett boys and James Lawlor, is a truly special honor and is tribute to the strenght of character of these young men and their amazing families.

While we all pursue countless worthwhile charitable endeavors, it is natural to wonder whether our contributions are truly making a difference in the lives of those we seek to help. The answer for Dana Farber patients in general, and Kyle specifically, is ABSOLUTELY and in life saving and life changing ways. Simply put, Kyle's clinical trial would not be possible without the funding provided to Dana Farber by the PMC. The PMC funding provides yearly, reliable funding that is vital to advancing the goal of finding a cure for cancer. As the PMC motto says, we are getting Closer by the Mile. But attaining that goal is dependent upon the funding provided by the PMC. Last year alone the PMC donated $75 million to Dana Farber for their research and treatment. Lasr year, our team eclipsed $1.0 Million raised to cure cancer and the PMC passed the career $1 Billion mark! These milestones are comprised of hundreds of thousands of individual donors - donors like each of us. EVERY. DOLLAR. MATTERS. Every donor is a HERO! So YES, absolutely YES, our contributions to the PMC matter immensely to all of us.