Meet Nicole.

Nicole, from August 2013

This is Nicole Rasile McPherson. Nicole was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma a little over 2 years ago.

Nicole is married to my cousin, Dusty McPherson.  Now, I have always asserted that the McPherson men have historically and consistently married well -- and I'm pleased that Dusty clearly inherited that ability. Nicole is a force of nature; smart and funny with an 100-watt smile -- and tough as a pine knot. Good work, Dusty!

Nicole and Dusty have two beautiful kids, Laker and Lizzy -- and they're clearly the center of their universe. They love those two kids beyond words. Over more than 2 years of chemo treatments (I lost count) and two bone marrow transplants, Nicole has doggedly kept me and her extended network of family and friends up to date with Laker's excellent baseball seasons, Lizzy's doll time with Daddy, and various school goings-on.

Dusty, Nicole, Laker and Lizzy -- May 2013

I have so loved reading Nicole's Facebook posts about her family over the last couple of years. She's a straight-shooter with a sense of humor that's as broad as her strength is deep. Case in point: here's what Nicole shared recently about cancer/chemo, love and her family:

"... we hate cancer, but we love more, harder, and stronger because of it.  ...And hell, if you can get free ice cream because your momma is bald..."  

Now, I'm sure Nicole is smart enough to find other ways for her kids to get ice cream.. but she's also smart enough (and kind enough) to find a sparkle of humor somewhere in this grind of chemotherapy and it's lovely side-effects and give us the chance to laugh with her, just a little bit.

So Nicole, thank you for having the strength and taking the time to share so honestly with all of us.

Please keep BUSTIN' IT.

I promise that I'll keep bustin' it for you and will be thinking about you and your family a lot this weekend, on the road!   See ya!

Meet Maddy

This is Madison Burt.  Maddy just turned 5 years old last week.   Maddy will be a special "passenger" for me on this year's Pan Mass Challenge for the Jimmy Fund - "the PMC".

A while back, Maddy was diagnosed with brain cancer: a group 4 desmoplastic medulloblastoma, to be specific. Maddy's been undergoing treatment for her cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee for several weeks now.  She's just now finishing up her 4th round of chemo at St. Judes's and will be headed down to FL to regroup and start radiation treatments.

My sister and nephew live just down the street from Maddy's grandparents and put me in touch with Maddy's mom, Jessica, a little while back. Jessica has been by her little girl's side through every second of this -- and with a lot of support from her friends and family.  Jessica and I exchanged a few messages, but mostly I just follow Maddy's experiences through her mom's Facebook posts.  I confess I do feel like a bit of a Nosey Nellie following Jessica's posts -- a well-intentioned "facebook stalker", I guess.

See, Maddy and I have never met; I've just been watching her story unfold from afar. It's made me laugh, and it's made me well up with tears something fierce from time to time. (Her recent run-in with C-Diff --a GI tract bacterial infection --  during her last round of chemo was just terrifying for me. I cannot imagine how inside-out her family was during that time.)  I respect Jessica so much for having the courage to share so much with me. Sometimes it was hard to read and see some of those pictures of a frail little Maddy. But hard as that can be, sometimes seeing that sort of thing does something to you: it galvanizes you -- makes you act.  Hopefully.

As I write this, I'm recalling that I posted something about "not looking away" here, about a year ago.  <pauses editing to find article.>  Here it is:  http://my-pmc.blogspot.com/2014/06/bill-and-melinda-gates-2014.html

Here's the 'centerpiece' quote from Melinda Gates from last June, in case you don't want to read the post or watch the video:

"In the course of your lives, you'll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don't turn away from it. Turn toward it. That is the moment that change is born."
...
"No matter how much suffering we see -- no matter how bad it is -- we can help people if we don't lose hope, and if we don't look away."

So I have not lost hope. In fact I'm more hopeful now than ever before. But while I am hopeful, I'm also thankful. I'm thankful that I can actually do more than just hope. I've been doing this "PMC thing" for the last 12 years and make no mistake: we are making a difference. The research that's been going on at Dana-Farber has been paid for in large part by the fund-raising that PMC riders have been doing. The immunotherapy research being done at Dana-Farber and elsewhere is now yielding some really promising results. Thanks to the doctors and scientists at Dana-Farber, people (including little boys and girls like Maddy) will soon be able to receive drug therapies targeted to kill cancer, without poisoning the rest of their bodies. I wish that these therapies were available NOW, especially for little Maddy, but they are coming and I have great hope.

I hope I actually get to meet Maddy and her mom in person someday soon.  If I do, I hope it doesn't weird them out.  [I hope I can keep my shit together long enough to not ugly-cry.]  It would mean a lot to tell Maddy, in person, just how privileged I am to meet her and how much I admire her bravery and her mom's generosity of spirit. That will be a Good Day.

If you're still reading this, I only ask that you also would do more than just hope: you can join with us and fight cancer with your generous donation to this year's Pan Mass Challenge. This will be my 12th year to ride and raise money for this cause and I sincerely hope that you will sponsor me with your online donation here: http://www.pmc.org/dm0192   100% of your tax-deductible donation goes directly to Dana-Farber to support their work in cancer research and treatment.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you can help.
/doug

PMC Presents Check for $41M to the Jimmy Fund for 2014

Yesterday at Fenway Park,  we announced the final numbers for PMC 2014 and presented the check to the Jimmy Fund for $41 million -- exceeding our 2014 goal by $1 million.   

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has supported me or any other PMC rider this year, enabling us to make such a great contribution to cancer research and treatment.   I just cannot say that enough: Thank you.  You can see a very nice video online here: http://vimeo.com/111229373.  It's about 4 minutes long, but worth watching.

I didn't attend the check presentation, but I did read the press release, and even saw it on the TV news.  Each year I'm still impressed by the numbers that get thrown out there:  5,500 cyclists, 3000+ volunteers, more than a million miles pedaled that weekend -- all to raise money to fight cancer.   

The problem is big.

The more I read the press releases and news about PMC, one thing hits me:  The numbers I keep seeing are just so big. This disease we call cancer is so diverse, pernicious and multi-headed.   Every once and a while the magnitude of the whole thing swells up in front of me -- and honestly,  I experience a bit of a (for lack of a better phrase) crisis of faith.  ("How much more can we do?  How much longer?  Are we really helping?").

But the answer lies in the small numbers.

Mercifully, when those 'big number worries' begin forming that cloud of self-doubt, it's the tiny number, one, that dissipates it for me every time: One.  Of all the thousands of riders and volunteers, each one has his or her own very personal reason for being part of the PMC's mission against cancer. By the same token, each one of you that's supported a PMC rider with your donations has your own very personal reasons for joining in the fight. So even though the numbers in this fight against cancer look so big,  I believe that we will find the solution in the one.   

Have you ever seen one of those computer-generated photo mosaics? It's one of those things where the main image (usually something singular and immediately-recognizable) is actually composed by piecing together thousands of other uniqe online images as its constituent pixels (or "metapixels")?

That is the way I envision the fight against cancer, the PMC's mission, my role in it -- and yours.   Every single one of us, taken individually, has been touched by this disease in some way.  Each person's passion to fight is fired differently -- but it still burns.   And when we unify each of our unique passions, we can achieve things far greater than we might otherwise imagine.

Getting ready for Round 36...

So even though the numbers and the problems before us are big -- I choose to believe that it's a relatively small, simple thing that will ultimately get us to a win against cancer.   So, whatever your reasons are for supporting the PMC -- as a sponsor, a rider or a volunteer -- I cannot thank you enough.   It's a fight, but when we unite and fight together we will win. This will probably be my last PMC post for 2014, but you will all be hearing from me again next year. 

/doug