Last week, we sent out a request to Charlestown residents participating in the Pan-Mass Challenge to tell their story about what motivates them. Here's one of them.

It is 2012 and I am celebrating TWELVE YEARS of biking in the Pan-Mass Challenge with my Husband, Kevin. The PMC is a two-day, 163 mile cycling event from Wellesley to Provincetown, Massachusetts on August 4 and 5. 

More than 5,000 cyclists will pedal to raise $36 million and surpass an overall fund-raising total of $338 million. This is the 33rd annual Pan-Mass Challenge.  

With your help I have raised over $52,000 in the last 11 years! Just last year I raised over $4,900 in memory of Kevin’s Brother, Ed Finnegan, who died on February 10, 2007, at age 53. Ed courageously battled for three years against Cancer. 

As a member of The New England Patriot Platelet Pedalers, I am donating platelets at Dana Farber Cancer Center every month and riding to find a cure for cancer! We need your help to make it to Provincetown and our goals once again.

I am asking you to donate any amount. Whatever you can give is appreciated, $50, $100 or more to help find a cure. This is so important and I am counting on your help!

Your tax-deductible check can be made payable to “Pan-Mass Challenge - Jimmy Fund.” Please mail your check to me now at 9 Billerica Road, Chelmsford, Massachusetts 01824. Or better yet go online to www.pmc.org/profile/mr0073 and make a contribution directly to me using e-gifts and my ID of MR0073. Please don’t hesitate to call me at (978) 244-9333.

Thanks for all of your help,
Margaret A. Reilly