Pan-Mass Challenge offers bike shop workers a chance to ride for 'hope, change, a cure'

WESTBOROUGH — Jessica Piwowarski has 108 names on her bike. But in addition to those she rides for, she includes one blank space.

"You just never know, I could be riding for you," she told the Daily News.

Piwowarski, along with several other employees of Landry's Bicycles , will participate in this weekend's Pan-Mass Challenge . The annual bike-a-thon through eastern Massachusetts is held annually during the first weekend of August, raising funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute , a Boston-based hospital that performs adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research.

Piwowarski, who is doing her 11th Pan-Mass Challenge, shared her mantra: "I ride for the angels above us and the warriors among us. I ride for hope, for change, for a cure."

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Landry's Bicycles, which has stores in Boston, Braintree, Charlestown, Natick, Needham, Norwood, Westborough and Worcester, is providing technical support to riders. The PMC offers 16 fully supported routes — from 25 to 211 miles — with different levels of cycling ability, fundraising capacity and logistics.

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This year, PMC riders have raised nearly $37.5 million, according to its website. This year's goal is $75 million.

Piwowarski will ride from Sturbridge to Provincetown (186 miles). For her, cancer is personal: Her sister-in-law, Liz, has terminal metastatic breast cancer, and her father had cancer last year.

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"I just think it's the greatest expression of the human spirit and what it can do," said Piwowarski, of West Brookfield. "The people that you meet doing this ride become a second family to you... When you show up in Sturbridge, you're just going to see people hugging each other because once year, you have a big family reunion."

She continued: "I think you'd find that spirit in every single person who rides the PMC. No matter what obstacle is thrown in front of them, they're still going to show up. They're still going to do it because they just have a reason to be there and they want to fight."

Medfield man first rode in 2006, has raised $100,000

Like Piwowarski, Greg White works for Landry's Westborough location. For him, biking in the PMC became personal when his wife, Amie, was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. They raced together the next year, and several more after that.

"Many of those years, she actually had no hair from treatment — but she still rode," said White, who lives in Medfield. Amie died in 2016 after battling ovarian cancer. Shortly after his wife's death, White surpassed the $100,000 lifetime fundraising mark.

White will ride from Wellesley to Bourne (84 miles) this weekend.

"It was deeply meaningful to us while my wife was in treatment," White told the Daily News. "Raising money to essentially try and save her life. We've made tons of friends and I connect with some of them only on PMC weekends, some of them a couple times a year, some become good friends.

"It's kind of a way of life."

White shared memories from his previous rides, including a pack of horses running beside bikers and bikers riding through inclement weather.

"Everyone is pulling for the same team and complete strangers that are biking next to you," White said. "You become close friends and then you can talk for miles as you're biking along. It's a huge sense of community. It's really deeply moving to be involved."

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Pan-Mass Challenge offers bike shop workers a chance to ride for 'hope, change, a cure'