Cancer Ride - Team Kermit
It’s another rainy Saturday and I’m thinking about last Saturday and where I was. Not home, like now, in my house, warm, with food in the next room, a dry roof over my head, and a dry floor under my feet. This time last weekend, I was at the Mass Maritime Academy in Bourne. negotiating my way through the rain and around the growing puddles that dominated the PMC, food tent and walkways. I was thankful I had remembered a rain jacket and my sandals are waterproof. I would remain mostly dry though dinner and I would have dry clothes for the Sunday ride into Provincetown. But what about Saturday’s ride: Wellesley to Bourne? Yes, it was wet, but it was so much more.
Within each PMC, through the training and the ride, a theme emerges, and the theme for PMC 2018 is Preparedness. NO ONE is prepared for hearing the words, “You have cancer.” Or worse, “Your child has cancer.” No one. The physical, mental and spiritual toll those words have on an individual and their family is uncalculatable. Learning you have cancer is not like committing to ride the PMC. You don’t sign up in January, knowing the diagnosis will be coming the first weekend in August. You don’t have an out.
Cancer is not a charity bike ride. The overwhelming theme for my ride was Preparedness—or to be more specific, the lack of being prepared. Work, life, and family superseded much of my time this Spring and Summer. Rain put a damper on riding into work. (That has since changed since PMC Saturday. I’ve been riding rain or shine.) Weekend family commitments and college tours took several weekends. Left knee pain made me very nervous about over using my knee and then not having it pain-free or at least functional for the ride. This year, before the PMC I had only logged 600 miles on my bike, whereas in years past it would have been much closer to 2000. I was unprepared. I knew it. And I was scared.
Would I make it? Would I even try? Would I fail? These questions plagued me. No questions asked, I could bag the ride. Just a quick reply to Billy Starr’s email and poof I would be home. With your kind support, I had met my monetary goal. The PMC had the money. The forecast looked like rain. Why ride? Why ride? Answered simply, because no one is ever prepared for cancer. We ride for those who have fought and who are fighting cancer. There is no such thing as a pass or a do over when cancer is involved. You can’t put your diagnosis back on the shelf, prop your feet up and ice your knee till next year.
Team Kermit rides to fight brain and spinal tumors. We ride into the Lakeville waterstop excited to greet Declan, our pedal partner, and his family. He is our beacon, our shining star, our example of why and what we do matters. As individuals we ride for our own personal reasons. Family and friends, survivors, and fighters—family and friends with us both in spirit, and in life. Urging us on. Whispering, “You can do this!”
What we all do truly matters. Acts of kindness resound through time. At the end of my first Pan Mass Challenge in 2016, Pam, Angus, and Alan (fellow Kermits) waited for the cramping in my feet to subside so I could take the rite of passage through the dunes. This year, right before the Wellfleet water stop, I found myself riding along side Pam. We finished the ride together, and this year it was my honor to wait for her feet to quiet down so we could take on the dunes and ride into Provincetown side by side. I am fortunate to be a part of Team Kermit. Bigger than our individual parts. And stronger in our fight because of you and your heartfelt donations. We are a riding family of 62, but really we are so many more. Individuals we pray for and who pray for us. Sponsors who for their own personal reasons join us in the fight. The ripples are endless and they will continue until the email goes out, “The PMC is cancelled. Cancer has been cured.”
Thank you for your love, kindness, prayers, and financial support. Together we crossed into Provincetown, fighters, sitting on the cure.
Within each PMC, through the training and the ride, a theme emerges, and the theme for PMC 2018 is Preparedness. NO ONE is prepared for hearing the words, “You have cancer.” Or worse, “Your child has cancer.” No one. The physical, mental and spiritual toll those words have on an individual and their family is uncalculatable. Learning you have cancer is not like committing to ride the PMC. You don’t sign up in January, knowing the diagnosis will be coming the first weekend in August. You don’t have an out.
Cancer is not a charity bike ride. The overwhelming theme for my ride was Preparedness—or to be more specific, the lack of being prepared. Work, life, and family superseded much of my time this Spring and Summer. Rain put a damper on riding into work. (That has since changed since PMC Saturday. I’ve been riding rain or shine.) Weekend family commitments and college tours took several weekends. Left knee pain made me very nervous about over using my knee and then not having it pain-free or at least functional for the ride. This year, before the PMC I had only logged 600 miles on my bike, whereas in years past it would have been much closer to 2000. I was unprepared. I knew it. And I was scared.
Would I make it? Would I even try? Would I fail? These questions plagued me. No questions asked, I could bag the ride. Just a quick reply to Billy Starr’s email and poof I would be home. With your kind support, I had met my monetary goal. The PMC had the money. The forecast looked like rain. Why ride? Why ride? Answered simply, because no one is ever prepared for cancer. We ride for those who have fought and who are fighting cancer. There is no such thing as a pass or a do over when cancer is involved. You can’t put your diagnosis back on the shelf, prop your feet up and ice your knee till next year.
Team Kermit rides to fight brain and spinal tumors. We ride into the Lakeville waterstop excited to greet Declan, our pedal partner, and his family. He is our beacon, our shining star, our example of why and what we do matters. As individuals we ride for our own personal reasons. Family and friends, survivors, and fighters—family and friends with us both in spirit, and in life. Urging us on. Whispering, “You can do this!”
What we all do truly matters. Acts of kindness resound through time. At the end of my first Pan Mass Challenge in 2016, Pam, Angus, and Alan (fellow Kermits) waited for the cramping in my feet to subside so I could take the rite of passage through the dunes. This year, right before the Wellfleet water stop, I found myself riding along side Pam. We finished the ride together, and this year it was my honor to wait for her feet to quiet down so we could take on the dunes and ride into Provincetown side by side. I am fortunate to be a part of Team Kermit. Bigger than our individual parts. And stronger in our fight because of you and your heartfelt donations. We are a riding family of 62, but really we are so many more. Individuals we pray for and who pray for us. Sponsors who for their own personal reasons join us in the fight. The ripples are endless and they will continue until the email goes out, “The PMC is cancelled. Cancer has been cured.”
Thank you for your love, kindness, prayers, and financial support. Together we crossed into Provincetown, fighters, sitting on the cure.
About Patty Hebert
My name is Patty Hebert, and I am a mother of three daughters. I ride on Team Kermit. My team was founded in 2005 by the Branfman family while their son Jared waged his two and a half year war against a brain and spinal cancer. Unfortunately Jared passed from this life, but with each pedal stroke, we, a team of 62, remember him and celebrate our pedal partner Declan. Declan had the same cancer as Jared. He is being treated by the same medical team, but through the fundraising efforts of Team Kermit, (to date we have raised 3.8 million dollars) research has resulted in a cure and Declan has been cleared. And had been cancer free for several years.
Our efforts continue. As a team we ride in the Boston Brain Tumor Ride, the Livestrong Ride, the Pan Mass Challenge and the Angel Flight of NE Ride. Our focus and prayers are for a cure and we will ride until the day we hear all cancer is cureable.
Please visit my Pan Mass Profile listed in the link below.
Help me wipe out cancer. http://profile.pmc.org/PH0134
Thank you,
Patty
My name is Patty Hebert, and I am a mother of three daughters. I ride on Team Kermit. My team was founded in 2005 by the Branfman family while their son Jared waged his two and a half year war against a brain and spinal cancer. Unfortunately Jared passed from this life, but with each pedal stroke, we, a team of 62, remember him and celebrate our pedal partner Declan. Declan had the same cancer as Jared. He is being treated by the same medical team, but through the fundraising efforts of Team Kermit, (to date we have raised 3.8 million dollars) research has resulted in a cure and Declan has been cleared. And had been cancer free for several years.
Our efforts continue. As a team we ride in the Boston Brain Tumor Ride, the Livestrong Ride, the Pan Mass Challenge and the Angel Flight of NE Ride. Our focus and prayers are for a cure and we will ride until the day we hear all cancer is cureable.
Please visit my Pan Mass Profile listed in the link below.
Help me wipe out cancer. http://profile.pmc.org/PH0134
Thank you,
Patty
