At first, I just learned the nitty-gritty of what I had to do. Each team designates a fundraising commitment for a stationary bicycle for a 4-hour ride, the minimum commitment per bike is $1,000. It was up to each individual team to decide how many members to acquire, thus influencing total fundraising amount and ride time for each individual. Now, if you do the math, if we had 4 team members, we'd each be responsible for $250. However, my friend is a chronic over-achiever and decided her team could raise at least $2,500 and estimated that she could get at least four others to join her, making our donation goal $500 each, thus $500 became my goal and I knew I'd have to go knocking on quite a few doors, virtually speaking.
As I began drafting my first donation request email to friends and family, I started to learn more about the organization. Cycle for Survival is operated by Memorial-Slone Kettering Cancer Center, with 100% of donations received going towards rare cancer research. Since 2007, Cycle for Survival has raised over $31.2 million dollars to research treatment for rare cancers and money raised from the event over the years has been used to fund 53 clinical trials and research studies.
When thinking about "rare" cancers, it is clear that additional research and funding are needed. With monster organizations like Susan G. Komen and Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, among others, a significant amount of money is going to research fairly "common," though no less scary, cancers, and treatment for those cancers have come a long way. However, I quickly learned that 50% of all diagnosed cancers are actually "rare" cancers. The definition of rare cancers is simply that under 200,000 people in the United States are affected by the particular disease. This litany of cancers include brain, cervical, sarcoma, pancreatic, stomach, and pediatric cancers, along with many others. The tragedy of this situation is that there are fewer dollars available to fund research, which is where Cycle fills a niche.
I quickly began hitting up friends and family for donations and found myself halfway to my goal in no time.
As I continued my quest, I started following Cycle for Survival on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Keeping up to date with their posts I stumbled upon a moving piece in the Huffington Post via Twitter. Similar to many Cycle participants who are into social media, I tried to do the little things to help move the cause forward. The post on Twitter declared that all I had to do was watch an online video of a woman doing a "Happy To Be 40" victory dance and someone would donate a dollar for every view. How could I say no? I quickly watched the video, happy to be doing something so small and watching a woman so happy - I quickly assumed that she must have survived. Then, I went back and read the article.
The woman in the video was Jennifer Goodman-Linn. She and her husband, Dave Linn, the writer of the Huffington Post article, co-founded Cycle for Survival when Jen was diagnosed with a rare cancer. The treatment options available weren't sufficient, but existing research wasn't there to provide any real alternatives. Jen would win her fight, only to have the cancer come back again and eventually - 4 months after she shot her "Happy To Be 40" video - she lost her battle.
Phew... some heavy stuff there. That was the first moment the cause really hit me and I knew I had to hit my goal. As the months progressed onwards, I sent about 4-6 emails and two weeks before the ride hit my goal. Since I'm a somewhat competitive person, so I snooped on our team page to see how my teammates were doing and I was the first to hit $500 (plus an extra dollar, thanks to the infamous Unkie Rob). I felt like my mission was accomplished!
On the day of the event, I turned up, ready to meet some new folks and do my part. The event was great fun - definitely a party atmosphere! I began taking it all in and was satisfied with my contribution. I was satisfied up until the moment when it all actually became real.
I didn't internalize much until the day of the event. Somehow, thinking about the stories I had heard about others, I was able to be committed to the cause, while simultaneously keeping myself distant. However, on the day of the event I thought about who I could "ride for" and simply thinking about a person so extremely special to me caused me to start crying in a room full of strangers.
My paternal grandmother battled breast cancer, twice. The second time she fought cancer, she would have lost if the universe hadn't intervened with other plans.
Ginny Nelson was an amazing woman and I am so extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to know her and to have had her influence my life. She was a warm, caring, strong woman. She was an entrepreneur and started her own cross-stitching business out of her basement in the early 80's, when starting a business wasn't necessarily a common thing for women to do. That business eventually outgrew the basement and moved into a store front in Jackson, Michigan that still survives today, nearly 13 years after the loss of my grandmother and 5 years after her friend, and subsequent shop-owner, also lost her battle with cancer.
Grandma Nelson was one tough cookie. I vaguely remember her first battle with cancer and vividly remember her last - as vividly as a 14-year old remembers things, anyway. Through it all, she insisted on smiling. My favorite memory was sitting with her at my kitchen table a few months before the accident. She was sitting right in front of the glass sliding door leading to our porch, the sun shining in created a halo-like glow around her. I was being ridiculous, as usual, and she was smiling at me and laughing. Somehow I had the wherewithal to reflect on her cancer at that moment and think, "This is how I want to remember Grandma Nelson" and that's exactly how I remember her.
As I thought about who I would ride for and why, the clear answer was Grandma Nelson, because she believed first, and foremost, in research. When treatments stopped working for her, she began experimental trials. Even in death, she elected to have her body donated to science so that doctors and researchers could learn from her tissues and very composition. In the end, her body could not be donated due to the nature of her injuries, but if she could have had her way - she would have made sure that losing her battle would mean that others could have a better chance of winning theirs.
At Cycle for Survival, I rode for Grandma Nelson.
The rest of the day really felt trivial after having such an epiphany and knowing that I'm more closely connected to the root of Cycle's mission than I had once thought. My team ended up blasting through any goals we set for ourselves and my $501 seemed a miniscule number when added to our grand total of $3,680! We had some really outstanding team members who went above and beyond.
Our team had a great time and many of us have already decided to sign on again and ride next year. Raising money isn't always fun, but it's completely worth it when you think of all the little donations joining together to make a really meaningful difference in the world. I ride because I believe in research.
A special thanks go out to my team captain, Sarah! Thank you for motivating us and getting everyone involved. Stay sassy, Honey Badger! Also, thank you to all of my friends and family who contributed to my team: Mama Nelson, Uncle Rick & Aunt Sandi, Uncle Dave, Unkie Rob, Missig, Cori, Susan, Kristie & Pat, Robi, Joe, Laura & Mike, Cousin Mere, Christina, and Lisa. Your donations meant the world to me. Thank you.
In case you'd still like to donate to my efforts, or my team, The Wizards of Woz,
efforts, you can still donate until April. Together, we can fight rare
cancers and, hopefully, wipe out the more common ones along the way.
Together, we can make a difference. Cycle on!
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