#WhyIPMC guest blog by Cindy Fuhs, 10-year Team FORZA-G rider
Why I Ride
I started riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge 10 years ago. I had heard about it long before then and had often thought it would be a fun physical challenge for a cause that has personal meaning for me. But somehow, I just didn’t find the time to make the commitment until my friend Bill got diagnosed with mesothelioma. Bill was in his mid-seventies and one of the best athletes I knew before he got sick. He had been riding in the PMC for about 8 years at the time. When he told me about his diagnosis, and before I even stopped to think about what I was doing, the words leaped out of my mouth and I told him I was going to ride in that summer’s PMC for him.
That was the summer of 2014. Bill did not survive his cancer despite receiving the very best of care at the Dana Farber. There are still cancers out there that we don’t have effective treatments and cures for. This is why I ride. And since losing Bill, I have lost my own father to long-term renal complications of prostate cancer. Although my father did not receive his care at Dana-Farber because he lived in western North Carolina, he had access to treatment modalities that did not exist 30 years ago when I lost my maternal grandfather to his prostate cancer. This progress that Dana Farber is leading is what gives me and those I continue to ride for hope. And hope is everything.
This year to do something really big for my 10th PMC, I decided to ride my bike across the country on an epic tour from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, solo and unsupported. I had done a little bike touring years ago and had long had dreamed of crossing the country under my own power on two wheels, and the timing just seemed right being recently retired. So in memory of Bill and my father and my grandfather, and in honor of a friend’s mother who is currently battling lung cancer, I flew to San Diego in early March and climbed into the saddle of my 1985 Fuji touring bike and set my sights on the East Coast over 3,000 miles away. I just completed my epic trek a little over a week ago in St. Augustine Beach, Florida. It was everything I had dreamed of, and also one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Daily challenges with headwinds, rough road, inconsistent or nonexistent services through endless miles of desert, miles-long climbs through mountainous terrain, and capricious downpours and lightning storms made me reach deep to overcome my physical discomfort to find the inner strength to remain focused and to keep going. I shed a lot of tears along the way. And I also found such tremendous generosity and kindness. People were just amazing! Cancer has touched most of us and my ride sparked a spontaneous well of support that filled my heart and sustained my spirit through the tough patches. I am still processing what this journey means for me, but I know that I have inspired many who have been following me to try and reach for their own dreams, because they have told me so. I know this much: Life is short and we don’t know what tomorrow holds, so I am going to keep riding in the PMC to try and keep the hope alive by supporting Dana-Farber.
I set my fundraising goal for $20,000 this year and I am already at $15,000. I’m not stopping because there is more work to do.
