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Why I PMC - Linda Chateauneuf

Published Date:   June 01, 2022

Topic:   #WHYIPMC, PMC 2022

#WhyIPMC guest blog by Linda Chateauneuf, 5-year participant, Team Lick Cancer

Life starts as remarkable, doesn’t it? Babies learn to walk. Get up and fall down. And then get up and walk and run and dance and keep growing, and it’s remarkable.

Sometimes life starts to seem less remarkable as we get “more” classic. Dad dies at 59, and Mom dies at 89. It doesn’t mean that you don’t mourn their passing, but it’s part of the normal order of things - part of the natural progress of life; or so they say. And then the older, but still vital, brother-in-law who dies of a glioblastoma when his brand, new baby daughter is only four months old. And what about the younger sister who dies of small-intestine cancer when she’s only 55? That’s not normal or natural, and it feels like there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t control any of it and you can’t help. You’re not a doctor or biologist or surgeon, just a sister, and you start to think that maybe remarkable is over for you. 

Tag on Nancys tree

And then fate might step in and point out a direction that we didn’t expect. You hear about this remarkableKen and Me_PMC Training 5 21 2022 woman that they call the Iron Nun, Sister Madonna Buder, who opened the female 80-plus groups at Ironman Canada in 2012, and you think…hmmm, pretty cool, pretty remarkable.   You learn from that favorite spin instructor (thanks John Campbell!) you hear about the Pan-Mass Challenge and how much money they have raised (over $64M in 2021, alone) to fight the cancer that killed your sister, brother-in-law, and too many friends and family, and you learn that there’s no expiration date on who can participate in this event, and you think….hmmm, what if it was the $1 that I raise that stops that cancer? Wouldn’t that be remarkable? So you think, hey, if the Iron Nun can do tri’s at 80+, then why can’t I ride a bike at least? At 60, you take the scary, remarkable leap and start indoor spin classes with people a lot younger than you, and you ride at Fenway Park in January over the last few years in an effort to raise the $1 that might cure that cancer. And you volunteer at the long ride PMC, and see the photos of the babies and little kids who are Pedal Partners, and meet so many Living Proof members, and you pass out water and food and high-five all of those millennials and baby boomers and seniors who make the remarkable effort to ride ~200 miles in two days to raise those precious dollars to cure cancer…and you quietly thank each and all of those riders and the people who donate to when you ride, too. And then now a few more years have passed, and you figure out it’s time to step from spinning and “to commit, then figure it out” and do the 200 miles in 2022. Thanks to another friend, Ken Mostello, who has been riding for six years, you get on the back of a tandem bike and start pedaling for all your worth. And you think there are still flashes and glimmers that say, “life is still remarkable” and I can’t stop now in case I can still get that $1 for the cure.  

Nancys Tree

 

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