Last night i had dinner with a friend who has breast cancer and it's heavy on my mind thinking about why we do charity rides...how it feels good yet somehow inadequate....

When I registered for BATO it was mostly because of the challenge and for training motivation. I care about the cause, Grandmother's a survivor so I posted a link to my donation site on my co.'s
internal employee volunteer page, it netted interest, I easily met my pledge goal but most important it put me back in touch with a long lost friend.

I've worked for the same co. for 8 years now, Jeri was the very first
person I knew there who became a friend. She's vibrant, so funny, brilliant, married a wonderful gal named Deb, you'd all love her. She left the
company, moved to southern Ca, we lost touch. I heard she
came back to work here but we had not talked. She saw the link
and from out of the blue there was an e-mail from Jeri!

She has breast cancer.

It was diagnosed at stage four. Several years ago she was up
here for the birth of her grandchild when she felt a twinge in her
breast. She made a mental note that if it kept up she'd have it
checked out. Hadn't had a mamogram in a while if at all. The
twinge repeated over the next two weeks so she went to the
doctor, who perfomed a breast exam and said "I don't feel
anything", Jeri insisted on a mamogram, time for one anyway. She had not had a mamogram in years due to a combo of her old doctor did not feel it was needed under 40, then she changed doctors ... so it had been a while.

She says when the lab tech wanted to take a second set x-rays,
she knew.

She's had chemo, some radiation, mastectomy and the cancer
went into remission. But now it's back, and metastesised to the
bone. She says it's gone into remission before, it could again, she's positive and upbeat and seems healthy but we just don't know. She asked me to share her story with others.

Everyone here *please* get a mamogram yearly.

So I'm changing the subject slightly, have you done rides for charity...why do you ride?