This is the first post about a bike ride from Banff to Colorado, but you are catching this story mid journey.

Last year my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s not something you understand when you first get the news and a year later what it means for our lives is still a mystery. What we know for now is that the surgery was successful and that, however painfully, she has been getting stronger. But having cancer isn’t something that ends, one cancer puts you at risk for another and so there is always more testing to be done.

So what we do know is that we need to be grateful to have made it this far, for every chance to be in the beautiful world and for the community that has helped us along the way. That’s what this blog and the journey that it chronicles is about.

When we received the diagnoses in March of last year we entered into a universe just to the right of the one we had been in. Where our already busy lives, working, raising children and being members of a community, couldn’t really stop. But now, in addition to mortal fear, we had a new and vast set of things that needed done and often extraordinary expenses that needed to be paid.

Our community could and did pray for my wife’s health, physical and emotional. We are religious people and believe that those prayers have helped keep her alive.

The community also swung into action to help with the hundreds of practical problems that come to the fore when someone is focusing on their health. Friends helped teach our daughter to drive and drove her to school. Friends cooked for us and ran errands. And, two organizations came out of the woodwork and offered to help.

The first was Bikur Cholim of Greater Washington (BCGW). They helped organize meals for months as well as other services that made it far easier to manage our lives. The second was Rofeh Cholim Cancer Society (RCCS) who have provided financial support by paying for much of our premiums and copays (and there were many during the last year).

We spent so much of the last year grateful for the help from others and aware of how precious our time on earth is, that this year an old friend and I decided to celebrate the life we have, and raise money for the organizations that have helped my family, by riding 1500 miles from Banff in Canada to Colorado completing some of the most challenging and beautiful parts of the Great Divide Mountain bike Route (GDMBR). The GDMBR is one of the great human powered journeys, an off road bicycle rout stretching from Canada to Mexico pioneered in 1997 that transformed what people thought possible on a bicycle. We plan to leave Banff on the July 9th and to arrive in the Denver area a month later having had a life affirming adventure and spread the word about these two great organizations on the way. Please do consider contributing below and helping spread the word by sharing this blog.

To donate to RCCS please use the following link; https://thechesedfund.com/rccs/bike-for-rccs. To Donate to BCGW please use the following link; https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E253226&id=3