When I was 17, my high school classmates of ’71 in Trumbull, were preparing for graduation, dancing at proms, learning how to put on makeup, and I was up on Hunter 5 (Yale’s Oncology floor), dancing with IV poles, having non air conditioned nuclear medicine scans, and learning how to fix my wig so it would not fall off.   Yes, I was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, just after my 16th birthday, and got spun into a world I did not know and that I would not change a bit, thanks to the Yale New Haven Medical Center.  The Cancer Center had not even opened yet, but Yale was trying and on the forefront of the cancer trials. I was lucky to be part of those trials.  I just found out about the Survivorship Clinic about 5 months ago.  Until then – for the last 37 years – I thought that I have been out here all alone, speaking with the American Cancer Society, working as a Mammographer, specializing in breast cancer (I am also a Yale graduate in Radiography), not knowing that the HEROS survivorship clinic had been growing.  More so because I moved to American’s Finest City, San Diego, CA, when given permission, by my then GYN/oncologist, Dr. Ernest Kohorn (retired) and Dr. Joseph Bertino, transferring my health care to UCSD.

I’m volunteering to help the Connecticut Challenge because, not only is it always time to give back, but time to give back to YALE for saving my life, giving me a chance to live life, and live it to the fullest extent as a survivor, a “club” to which I feel a great privilege and honor to belong!  I think the Connecticut Challenge is a great place for me to start!

The very hill that riders of the CT Challenge are going to pass over this year, may have in fact saved my life on a ride two years ago.

It was after a bike ride with my wife and children in Greenfield Hill that I noticed I was unusually winded and unable to keep up with my family. This was the impetus that prompted me to get a physical, the very one that diagnosed me ultimately with colon cancer. At the time I was 38, had two children ages 2 and 4 and a beautiful wife. I was busy building my career, my family and my life. I didn’t have time to feel tired or sick, but who wasn’t tired with all of those responsibilities. It wasn’t until I couldn’t physically pedal up Bronson Road that I decided to investigate.

Since that ride it has been a long road for me; a diagnosis of colon cancer, surgery, a week in a coma, 6 months of chemotherapy. Since ending my treatment it has been a year and currently I am without any trace of cancer.

This year I will ride in the CT Challenge because I can!  I will ride to raise money for a very noble cause, The Survivorship Clinic at Yale Cancer Center, I will ride for my mother, a cancer survivor.  I will ride for my friends that have been diagnosed with cancer.  I will ride for the support of all of my friends and family who helped me in my battle and for everyone who has been touched by this horrible disease.  I will ride to create awareness and to create solidarity for the cancer survivor community.  Cancer, for the first time ever, has declined for the second year in a row.  I will ride to keep that statistic going!

But mostly I will ride for the future.  I will ride for the promise of better cures, better treatment, better awareness and for someday I hope, a cure.

This year when I ride up the hill on Bronson Road as the captain of Team Noble Cause, along with the hundreds of riders in the CT Challenge, I will remember my ride two years ago.  This time I will know that the road AND the ride are going to make a difference!

The CT Challenge is more than just a bike ride. The CT Challenge is an idea, a radial concept that seems so simple but only recently has come to light. The idea of working with and addressing the post-treatment concerns of cancer survivors was not on the radar of health care providers, insurance companies, or the general public for years; however, as a cancer survivor, these thoughts and concerns have been in the back of my mind for over 8 years. The CT Challenge is an opportunity for anyone who has been affected by cancer in some way to step up, grind out the miles on their bikes over some beautiful and challenging hills, and raise money and awareness for a much needed cause.

I was diagnosed with stage II testicular cancer in 1998 when I was 22. At that time, I was finishing graduate school, and a cancer diagnosis was an unforeseen obstacle that I had to overcome to continue on with my life. The surgeries and chemotherapy treatments I received saved my life, but more than 8 years later I still live with side effects from those interventions. After numerous consults with various doctors, I felt that these side effects would be a permanent reminder of my battle with cancer, and that I could not do anything about them.

This is why the CT Challenge is vital to the 100,000+ cancer survivors in the state of CT, and as a model for the over 10 million cancer survivors in the country. The CT Challenge has created the funds to start Connecticut’s only survivorship clinic at Yale New Haven Hospital in October 2006. This clinic addresses the specific concerns of us after we have finished our active treatments, including returning to exercising, eating right to regain strength and to prevent a reoccurrence, and dealing with the psychosocial aspects of being a cancer survivor. Lance Armstrong has said that “life after cancer is all about living,” and he’s right. It’s not enough to just barely make it through the tough treatments to rid our bodies of cancer. We as cancer survivors should carry on our lives with confidence. The CT Challenge and the CT Challenge Survivorship Clinic empowers cancer survivors to continue forward to overcome any obstacle that comes our way.