This year - 2022 - I will be riding in my 10th Pan Mass Challenge! And I'm asking all of you - many of whom have supported me over all these years - for help! I'm so grateful for your love and support and EVERYTHING you have done for me when I was battling. This is our opportuntiy to give back - to help the folks who are fighting every day to find a cure, to provide resources for those in the fight and for the families and friends who fight along with them - and I would be so grateful if you would join me and make a donation to my ride.
Many of you know how much Dana Farber means to me.... and how grateful and blessed I am to have had the kindness, the expertise, the support and the smiles of the amazing doctors, nurses, social workers, greeters, parking attendants, everyone! I truly wouldn't be here and as healthy today if it weren't for DFCI.
For those who might not be familiar with my story, on Thursday, October 29th, 2015 - as I was getting ready to watch the Pats game - I got a call from my doctor that no one wants to hear: I have breast cancer. It was a small lump I had found myself (do your exams, ladies!) and I was at the Dana Farber with the top oncologists and surgeons the next Tuesday. Because I was young and healthy, we were going to take an aggressive approach with dose-dense chemo and a double mastectomy (due to a genetic predisposition to breast cancer) and we were going to get this thing! We were, as my Oncology NP said: Treating to CURE!
Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky as I am. I lost my mother on March 29, 2005 at the age of 52, after fighting a long and difficult battle. The six years she survived since her diagnosis with lung cancer speaks to her amazing toughness and her will to stay here for her family and friends that she loved and that loved her so dearly. Everyone who knew her loved her and even though she was not with us for long, she made a remarkable impact on everyone she met. She was a wonderful, kind and generous person who is sorely missed by all of us who were fortunate enough to be touched by her, especially my father, sister, brother, brother-in-law, the grandkids, myself and all her dear family and friends.
I will be riding in the Pan Mass Challenge this August as a LIVING PROOF ridier and in memory of my mother and so many friends that have been touched by cancer. I am raising money to benefit the Jimmy Fund and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 100% of money donated goes directly to DFCI/Jimmy Fund, and I can tell you from experience, it is an absolutely amazing place!
Thank you!!! Trish
