Cyclists pedal off to raise $36 million - Worcester Telegram

STURBRIDGE â€"  More than 5,000 Pan-Mass Challenge bicyclists got up at 3 a.m. yesterday to pedal in hot and humid weather to raise money to fight cancer, many of them riding in honor of other people.

Billy Starr, who lost his mother, an uncle and a cousin to cancer in the 1970s, organized the first Pan-Mass Challenge in 1980. That first ride, with 36 bicyclists, raised $10,200. This year’s event yesterday and today offers cyclists a selection of one- and two-day rides and aims to raise $36 million. The Pan-Mass Challenge’s cumulative 33 years of donations to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund program are expected to surpass $370 million this year.

There has been measurable improvement in cancer research and treatment over that time, according to Dr. Edward J. Benz Jr., Dana-Farber’s president and CEO.. “When I finished my (medical) training in 1980, adults had a 30 percent chance to live an additional five years more, now it is approaching 70 percent. When you think of how common cancer is, that represents millions of lives,” Dr. Benz said in a telephone interview.

“Children with acute leukemia, cancer of the blood, had a 10 to 15 percent chance of living three more additional years in 1980; now that is 90 percent,” Dr. Benz added, saying the progress means children who previously would have died now “live well into adulthood.”

This weekend’s riders know the faces behind the numbers. Danni M. Ward, 30, of Millbury first rode the Pan-Mass Challenge last year for her aunt, Joan Jordan of Worcester, who died of breast cancer Jan. 31 at age 57.

“We promised her we would ride with her and do the best and raise as much money as we can,” Ms. Ward said with emotion. Her four-person team is called Auntie’s Angels.

“Auntie sits on our shoulders,” Ms. Ward said between tears. Auntie’s Angels include Rosa C. Gyllenhaal of Beverly, Annmarie Wagner of Boston and Scott Desatnick of Natick. The group said it has $30,000 in pledges.

Charles H. “Chuck” Steedman of Hopkinton was riding for a similar reason.

“My mother and father died of cancer in 2002; I started riding in 2003,” Mr. Steedman said. He grew up in East Brookfield and graduated from David Prouty High School in 1980. In 10 years, he has raised $150,000. His parents, Lester L. Steedman and Dorothy M. (Rowbottom) Steedman, had been married 41 years when they passed away.

Mr. Starr, noting that a lot has changed in 33 years, said that during the earlier rides, “There was always some issues about some police chief (concerned) about turf (who asked) ‘Why are you riding through our town?’ The battles I fought in the 1980s are won. By 1989 when we finally raised a million dollars in one year, it raised eyebrows.”

The Pan-Mass founder praises the “remarkable support we get from all the police departments in the 46 towns in which we travel.”

Dr. Benz said the Pan-Mass cyclists project “such a sense of positive energy in dealing with an awful disease. I am just praying that we have more good news in the fight against cancer.”

“It’s 10 past five. Thank you for coming out early. We leave at 5:30,” Mr. Starr said into a microphone yesterday (Saturday) morning, as darkness and day were getting ready to switch places.

“Keep your head, be safe out there,” he said. “Everybody in the state, in the country, is pulling for us. Have a great, safe ride,” Mr. Starr said while radio station WEEI-FM was broadcasting over loudspeakers.

Reilly Harris, who begins her sophomore year at Concord-Carlisle Regional High School this month, sang the national anthem unaccompanied.

Then the bodies and legs of helmeted bicyclists moved in waves, streaming from the Host Hotel parking lot onto Route 20 to the music of U2: “It’s a beautiful day/Don’t let it get away/It’s a beautiful day/Touch me/Take me to that other place.”