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Date: 7/27/2023
Rich Gloster is no stranger to cancer. When he was 18 and a senior in high school, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Last year, a week before his 65th birthday, Gloster was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
For him, riding in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge bikeathon — which raises money for cancer research and patient treatments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston — is a very personal cause that could help save his life.
“Right now, I’m on experimental treatment. The way I look at, raising money to ride in the PMC is saving my life. The treatment I’m getting now wouldn’t have been possible without this event,” said the Agawam resident, who has never smoked.
When he was diagnosed with his earlier cancer, he was given only a 20% chance of survival. “Now it’s an 80% survival rate, due to the research at the Dana-Farber,” he said.
Gloster and Kate MacDougall of West Springfield are among more than 6,000 cyclists who will ride a one- or two-day route on Aug. 5 and 6, to raise money that directly benefits Dana-Farber. The PMC, in its 44th year, offers 16 potential routes, from 25 to 210 miles, designed to cater to all levels of cycling and fundraising ability.
The overall goal is to raise $70 million to provide Dana-Farber’s doctors and researchers with the necessary resources to discover cures for all cancers. Most riders participate in honor of a family member or friend fighting cancer.
Gloster will be biking with his oldest daughter and a friend, a former Agawam resident who now lives in Florida. They call themselves “Richie’s Riders” and plan to do the two-day route that starts in Sturbridge with a stop in Bourne on Saturday night. They will continue to Provincetown on Sunday, for a total distance of approximately 192 miles.
This year’s ride will be Gloster’s biggest challenge since he started riding in the PMC several years ago.
“I’m trying to ride as much as possible, but the weather hasn’t helped my training — it’s been a crummy summer to ride. I’ve only been able to ride 38 miles,” said Gloster. He will be using a Specialized Roubaix brand of bike that a good friend loaned him: “It’s a beautiful bike — it’s the Cadillac of bicycles.”
Gloster raised $1,000 on the first day he posted on Facebook. There was also a large dinner fundraiser at the Dante Club in West Springfield.
“We’ve pretty much reached our fundraising goals. We all wanted to be heavy hitters, which means we have to raise $10,000,” said Gloster. To date, he’s raised more than $13,000.
He’s determined to ride the entire route.
“It seemed like a good idea when I signed up in January, but now, it’s either go bigger or go home,” said Gloster, who has been a member of the Jimmy Fund Council of Western Massachusetts for more than 35 years.
Five years ago, Kate MacDougall, a fourth-grade teacher in Springfield who lives in West Springfield and spends summers on Block Island, started pedaling in the tire tracks of her mother, who began riding in the PMC in 1997. MacDougall is riding primarily to honor her grandmother and an uncle, both of whom died from pancreatic cancer.
She’s also riding for the many people she’s met who are cancer survivors or who share their experiences at Dana-Farber, either as patients or about their loved ones.
“One of my favorite parts of the PMC each year is seeing the road signs along the route that read, ‘You saved my life.’ I tear up every time. That’s a huge reason why I ride,” MacDougall said.
MacDougall, who will also ride from Sturbridge to Provincetown, is about $1,500 away from her fundraising goal is $6,000.
“It’s tough to raise that much money as a teacher, so I’ll take all the help I can get. To raise money, I post on Instagram and Facebook and email family, friends, and coworkers,” she said.
Twice a week, she also helps her mother run a farmer’s market stand on Block Island and puts a donation jar at the stand.
“I ask every customer to donate a few dollars. I’ve raised more than $500 through that method so far,” she said.
The 32-year-old has been riding since she was a kid when she and her mother used to take smaller rides around Cape Cod, and then increased their distance to around the Worcester area.
“When I decided to ride the PMC for the first time, I got my dad’s hand-me-down Trek bike and have been riding it ever since. It’s a dinosaur of a bike, but it hasn’t failed me yet,” she said.
At her summer home on Block Island, off the Rhode Island coast, MacDougall gets up at 6 a.m. most mornings to train.
“The island is a hilly 16 miles around, so I’ll do one or two laps, some figure eights, and some hill repeats, depending on the day,” she said. “With two laps, I can get more than 1,000 feet of climbing. Early rides afford me time to enjoy the island when it’s at its most quiet and beautiful.”
The PMC is the nation’s single most successful athletic fundraiser, donating 100% of every rider-raised dollar to Dana-Farber. If it achieves this year’s fundraising goal, it would be the single largest gift Dana-Farber has ever received, bringing the PMC’s total contribution to $970 million since it began in 1980.
The bikeathon also is Dana-Farber’s largest single contributor, accounting for 55% of its Jimmy Fund’s annual revenue. The PMC is sponsored by the Red Sox Foundation and M&T Bank. To make a financial contribution to a rider, visit mpmc.org, or call 800-WE-CYCLE (932-9253).