Way Back Wednesday - Roslyn McLean Rode, Jumped and Volunteered for the PMC

Way back in 2009, Roslyn McLean, took her commitment to the Pan-Mass Challenge to new heights, literally. She went skydiving in Middletown, RI, wearing her rider jersey as a way to help boost her PMC fundraising campaign, and the jump worked! She raised an additional $18,000. 

McLean joined the PMC family in 2001 after losing her mother to breast and lung cancer in 1994. She started volunteering for the annual bike-a-thon in 2001, after she suffered from over-hydration while training to ride. By 2005, McLean began riding in addition to volunteering, pedaling from Wellesley to Bourne on Saturday and serving as a crew leader at the Babson start and finish. 

For the past three years, the Scotland native and Charlestown, Mass. resident, has been living in the Bay Area, Calif., where she moved to open an additional office for her company. Through the PMC, she has made a number of friends on the West Coast that return to the Commonwealth year after year to ride and raise money for the cause. McLean also helps to manage her company’s PMC team, Team Bain Capital, and annually participates in the PMC Pedal Partner Program, riding in honor of a current pediatric cancer patient at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic.  

“I have made a number of friends training for the PMC year-round and riding PMC weekend,” says McLean. “There are about 60 PMC alum in California and I have had the pleasure of meeting and riding with many from the San Francisco area alone. Supporting the PMC mission has become a lifelong commitment for me. Just how the parachute saved my life when I jumped out of that plane, I will do anything I can to help save lives from cancer.”  

On Aug. 2 and 3, McLean will join more than 5,800 cyclists who will ride up to 190 miles in the 35th annual event to raise $40 million to support adult and pediatric patient care and cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. This will be McLean’s 14th year volunteering and ninth year riding. To date, she has raised nearly $150,000.  

“There is no other feeling like the one you experience amongst the thousands of riders and volunteers during PMC weekend,” says McLean. “It’s the camaraderie, the feeling of unity, the idea that you are doing something to help make a difference for others, that makes me continue coming back. We are family and we will be there for each other, no matter what.”  

To register to ride or volunteer in the 35th annual Pan-Mass Challenge, which is set for Aug. 2 and 3, or to support Roslyn McLean or another PMC cyclist, visit www.pmc.org. 

In 2009, Veteran PMC volunteer and rider Roslyn McLean took her support of the PMC to new heights by jumping out of a plane to raise money for the cause.

Post courtesy of Allison from Teak Media + Communication