Laurie H. Glimcher, M.D., President and CEO Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, sent a thank you letter to the PMC Winter CYcle Office that we want to share with all of you

I would like to congratulate you on another successful PMC Winter Cycle. What a great way to ride into the 40th anniversary year of the Pan-Mass Challenge and build on the momentum from its $56 million record-breaking milestone last year.

Why I PMC is a simple question to answer. I PMC for my #1 “ride or die”, my father, who is currently being treated at Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

My name is Tracey and I am a 3yr survivor of stage 2b Bulky Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Five years ago on December 30th, I had a dermatologist appointment to check on a new mole that had showed up. I was losing sleep over it leading up to the appointment.

My 2nd Winter Cycle

I'm sure that my story is similar to many folks.  My sister, Nancy Adams, started losing weight at the end of 2011 for no good reason.  My normally strong and funny sister couldn’t eat and went into a deep depression.  She figured out that she had cancer before any of us wanted to admit it. 

guest blog post by Lauren Lenkaitis Raffoni (PMC Winter Cycle instructor, 11am session)

My name is Joe Marino and I’m riding in the 2018 PMC Winter Cycle event at Fenway Park, I have previously ridden in the Resolution spinning event at the George Foreman Gym.  I’m also a 44 month survivor of Pancreatic Cancer.  I was diagnosed on March 3rd, 2014 and had a Whipple on April 2nd 2014, I was 36 years old when I was diagnosed.  

My freshman year of high school, I was an average 14 year old girl. I spent a lot of time with my 4 siblings, I danced every day at my Mothers dance school, and I played goalkeeper competitively on 2 different soccer teams. While playing winter season, I took a soccer ball to the stomach leading to 2 months of pain, bruising and fatigue. Originally written off as a sports injury, ultimately led my parents and I to Boston Children’s Hospital and a final diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.