Join the Global Fight Against Cancer - Donate to The Jimmy Fund Now!

This weekend I'll be riding my bike 192 miles in my fourth annual Pan-Massachusetts Challenge. The PMC, as it is known, is a charity bike ride raising money for life-saving cancer treatment and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through donations to The Jimmy Fund. One hundred percent of all rider-raised donations go directly to the Jimmy Fund, there is no event overhead thanks to thousands of volunteers and hundreds of corporate sponsors!

As an active cyclist, I am not as challenged by the cycling as I am the fund raising! With a $4,200 commitment pledged the day I register, I must raise the money or have my credit card charged for the balance. The ride is in four days and I still need to raise nearly $2,000!

Will you join in the global fight against cancer and make a donation to The PMC and The Jimmy Fund? Will you go out for steak tacos instead of a steak dinner and donate the difference to The Jimmy Fund? Will you buy a beer instead of a martini and donate the difference to The Jimmy Fund? Will you order a salad instead of a three course meal and donate the difference to The Jimmy Fund? Will you eat in instead of going out altogether and donate the money you saved to the Jimmy Fund?

 To make a 100% tax-deductible donation online, please visit http://www.pmc.org


From the Pan-Mass Challenge web site:

Cancer Facts & Figures


Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by either the runaway growth of cells or the failure of cells to die normally. Cancer can arise in any organ of the body and strikes one of every two American men and one of every three American women at some point in their lives.


Each year, nearly 1.4 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the United States, a figure that does not include the 900,000 cases of skin cancer diagnosed annually. Cancer is the second leading cause of death (after heart disease) in the United States, accounting for 560,000 deaths every year. While more than 3 million people are diagnosed with cancer around the globe each year, the figure most likely represents just a percentage of people who have the disease but remain undiagnosed due to decreased access to health care in different parts of the world. There are more than 100 different varieties of cancer, which can be divided into six major categories. Carcinomas, the most common type of cancer, originate in tissues that cover a surface or line a cavity of the body. Sarcomas begin in tissue that connects, supports or surrounds other tissues and organs. Lymphomas are cancers of the lymph system, the circulatory system that bathes and cleanses the body's cells. Leukemias involve blood-forming tissues and blood cells. As their name indicates, brain tumors are cancers that begin in the brain, and skin cancers, including dangerous melanomas, originate in the skin. Cancers are considered metastatic if they spread via the blood or lymphatic system to other parts of the body to form secondary tumors.