Greetings all! As I have done in years past, I am once again participating in the Great Cycle Challenge in the month of September. In 10 years, our community of riders from all 50 states have ridden a total of 33,817,103 miles, and together we’ve raised $72,646,876 in support of research to develop better treatments and find a cure for childhood cancer.

Two years ago I mentioned that this ride had become personal to me because of a neighbor boy of ours, Jacen (now 13 years old), who was diagnosed with 2 very rare forms of leukemia in November of 2021. He completed the chemo treatments in 2023 and had been doing well until earlier last summer when the cancer returned and was discovered in his spinal fluid. Thanks to cancer studies and research, the doctors thought he would be a perfect candidate for CAR T-cell therapy. T cells, which are part of the white cells, were taken from Jacen’s blood last summer. During several weeks in a lab, a receptor gene was added to them to supersize them in hopes that it would help fight the cancer once reintroduced into his blood last fall. Once they start binding with the bad cells, they start to increase in number and can help destroy even more cancer cells. Jacen is doing GREAT and is a living, breathing example of how important cancer research is. It makes me so happy to see him running and playing with all of his friends throughout the neighborhood and for what his body went through, I will continue to look at him as the strongest and toughest kid I have ever met!

I know that when I ride and raise funds in Great Cycle Challenge, I am helping Children's Cancer Research Fund to allow them to continue their work to develop lifesaving treatments & find a cure for childhood cancer. Your donation would be greatly appreciated by me but most importantly by Jacen and all the other kids living with cancer that deserve brighter futures. Thank you