Why do I Ride? I ride because Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center makes living with cancer an option for more and more people each day; RPCC allows people like me to say "I'm Cured;" RPCC keeps me close and when I have a weird lump or bump they get me in pronto and take care of it; their Survivorship Clinic is FABULOUS (Tessa Flores ROCKS) and they saved me and a whole bunch of other people on our team and in my life. The truth is, cancer still kills far too many people including and most painfully real for me, the love of my life, The Rev. Lucinda "Pete" Dempesy-Sims. She fought hard but Lung Cancer is the NUMBER ONE cancer killer of women and she was one of those killed by the disease. I intentionally use "killed" because she didn't succumb to it after a valiant fight. It took her, away from her family and her friends and all those people who didn't get to meet her and be better for having met her. So I ride because this beast of a disease shouldn't do this to another family. Every single day the folks who work at Roswell work toward curing this thing, walking with people who are on this journey, crying with those who loved the ones they couldn't save. And it is in the backyard of Western New York.
I Ride because I can and Pete can't. I Ride for my adopted granddaughter Trini because I'm her Grathy and I want to teach her how to ride a bike. I Ride for every single person who walks through the front doors of Roswell for the first time scared out of their minds. I Ride for Liz, our Team Captain (Trini's mom) who is a cancer warrior. I Ride for me because Cancer-zero, CD-S-won.