I'm Riding My Bike from Cleveland to Cincinnati

This is not a typical post for this newsletter, and it’s the kind I will do only once a year.

At the end of July I’m doing a four-day bike ride, covering 350 miles (yes that averages 87.5 miles a day), starting in Cleveland and finishing in Cincinnati. It’s called the Pan Ohio Hope Ride and it’s a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. I’m an avid cyclist (I ride about 2,000 miles each year) so yes, the thought of riding 90 miles a day is actually appealing to me, but I do this ride for a very specific reason:

I’m a cancer survivor.

In 2015 I endured a month of radiation for cancer that was on my vocal chords. Having your throat fried from the inside out is no picnic. I lived several weeks on only ginger ale and high calorie drinks. I had to wake myself up to take my pain meds on an exact schedule because if I waited, the pain would be too much to even swallow the pill. I lost about 50 pounds. Maddie has destroyed every photo of me from that summer.

But I’m still here. For five years I’d go in for scans to see if there was an evidence of the disease, and all my scans were clean. With my type of cancer, 5 years of clean scans means I’m cured—not remission, cured.

But let me be perfectly clear: the reason I’m cancer-free is because of research. Period. The reason so many of us survive cancer lies in the years and years of research behind the treatments, and the money we raise for this ride directly funds new research. Please consider making a donation to support this effort.

And if you want another reason, the ride also supports the Hope Lodge in Cleveland, where patients and caregivers can stay during treatment. As hard as my journey was, it is nothing compared to what many other cancer patients have to endure, particularly those who must rely on experimental treatments to save their lives, and those are the folks that rely on the support from the Hope Lodge.

So please donate. Any amount is welcome. Support me in what is not an easy endurance ride, and help make it possible for others to survive cancer and ride with me. Thanks in advance.