#WhyIPMC guest blog by Scott Steeves, first-year rider
My life has been touched by three incredible women. The first is my mom who was diagnosed with
mesothelioma stage 4 incurable cancer. The doctor said she received cancer from washing my father’s clothes. He was a construction worker exposed to asbestos on a regular basis. When she was diagnosed, she started her chemo treatment at the same time she took care of my father who was battling Alzheimer’s. She never complained. She just did what she thought she had to do as she fought a cancer no one should endure at the end of their life. When my mom passed, I promised to take care of my dad and, of course, Sadie, her favorite dog. My dad passed two years after my mom so I then needed a new purpose. Sadie, my two chickens, my dog Lucy and I packed our bags looking for our next journey. I moved to Cape Cod where I heard about the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) from a friend. IFAW is a global non-profit that rescues animals – on Cape Cod they rescue whales, dolphins and seals. They operate with a small staff and a group of highly trained volunteers. I filled out an application and waited for the call. While I was settling into my new neighborhood, I walked the dogs a lot and met some of the other residents. 
One was a woman named Carolyn who I learned was a two time breast cancer survivor and a long time IFAW volunteer. Not too much later, I was accepted as an IFAW volunteer and began the training. At the training, I ran into Carolyn who took me under her wing and taught me how to rescue dolphins, seals and whales. At my first dolphin rescue, Carolyn was there and I met another woman named Holly. Holly had been rescuing dolphins alongside Carolyn for years. I learned that day that when Holly isn’t rescuing dolphins, she is rescuing people as a firefighter paramedic. Holly is fearless. She is always the first one in the Wellfleet mud (for those of you unfamiliar with that mud, it is very dangerous - like quicksand). 2024 the busiest year in IFAW history. On one extremely difficult call with eleven bottlenose dolphins, Holly was the first one there. She told me she couldn’t stay because she had to go for an ultrasound. She didn’t tell me why. A few hours later as we were still out there working, she returned and helped the team release the eleven dolphins into open water. My gut
said something was wrong, but wanted to give her respect and space. I knew that she knew I was there for her if she needed me – just like our whole rescue team is. About a year later, a small group of us from IFAW met for lunch and Holly shared that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer – which is why she left for an ultrasound that day. She said she had gone through treatment and was doing ok. You would have never known it because over that year, she showed up to rescue after rescue just like she always did. When you have as many rescues as we did in 2024 and you go through such unique, difficult and demanding circumstances, you get very close very fast. These two women have become like family to me. I am in awe of them. The physical, mental and emotional demand of dolphin rescue is extreme. It naturally requires a selfless and generous person. Carolyn and Holly, however, take that to the extreme. They glide through that with grace, strength, poise and care. Neither of them was dealt a fair deck in life, just like my mom, but they don’t falter. They push through even harder and get stronger. They magically become more generous, more caring, more poised, and more worried about everyone else – humans and dolphins alike. Even when things were hard personally and medically, they pitched in like the superheroes they are.
I ride for these three inspiring ladies because they are my heroes. They showed courage every day where no courage should exist. They don’t ask for help, even when they need it the most. Instead, they help others. This is why I ride to cure cancer – because people who make this world such a better place don’t deserve to suffer through this disease. I will ride until I can’t ride any more to honor these heroes. They have given so much to me, this is how I am giving back to them. 
