AMBBR stands for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, which was June 7th in Lake Tahoe, California. Here is a photo I took outside my hotel room, it was incredibly beautiful there.
The LLS does AMBBR as one of it's Team in Training events and I had never been, so I teamed up with our local chapter and went along to help with what is known as SAG (Support And Gear). That's a vehicle that rides around on the route with things like water, gatorade, First Aid, etc., in case any of the riders need help.
Tahoe was truly beautiful though cold! I had to buy socks, a long-sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt because I was totally unprepared for the weather. The 1st full day there it rained and hailed, but our riders were still out there getting in a practice ride before the big race Sunday! Can you imagine? Those are some incredibly dedicated riders!
It was so incredible to see all the TNT riders from all over the country there. Over 6 Million dollars were raised by our teams at this event, pretty incredible! I met another honored patient (I'll call him "Tom") who was there to cheer on his best friend. We actually wound up riding in the SAG truck together, and had a great time. Tom has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which is only treatable but not curable. He'll have to fight it for the rest of his life, and will go through periods of treatment and remission, unless a better treatment that will offer a cure is discovered.
That's a big reason why I am still involved, why I still fundraise every year. I think a lot of my friends and family think to themselves; What's up with this? She's better now, why's she always hitting us up for money? And this is why. Yes I'm better, but throughout this experience I've met so many others who haven't been as lucky as I've been, people like Tom who may not live to see his kids graduate, and get married.
The five-year relative survival rate for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma has more than doubled from 40 percent in whites in 1960-1963, to more than 86 percent for all races in 1996-2004. Five-year relative survival rates are 91.6 percent for all patients who were less than 45
years old at diagnosis. (LLS "Facts 2008-2009")
That's huge strides made in the last 40 years alone, and it just reaffirms my belief that we could see real cures for these diseases in our lifetime. If only the funding is available to support the research.
Please donate today, you can save a life. Just like someone saved mine.
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