Rider Profile

BellRinger is a bike ride and a year-round effort to end cancer. I've made a commitment to riding on October 20-21, and fundraising, and I invite you to join me by donating to my effort and supporting life-saving cancer research at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. I am on my oncologist’s (Dr. John Marshall) team which is representing the Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers. I was diagnosed in 2017 with Stage 3 colorectal cancer (CRC). After a colon resection and 4 months of intensive chemotherapy I was in remission for three years. In May 2021 it was discovered that my cancer had returned to my liver as Stage IV. After surgery to remove the tumor, cancer was discovered in my lung a few months later. It was at this point that I became a patient of Dr. Marshall’s team at Georgetown. In November 2021, I had surgery to remove the cancer along with a considerable portion of one lung, and was preparing a treatment plan to prevent further spread. Then two days before Christmas 2021 a brain tumor was discovered (same cancer) requiring brain surgery the day after Christmas and only 6 weeks after my lung surgery. The amazing care by Dr. Marshall and my team chartered the course of a gene-specific treatment plan that has put me in the coveted category of “NED” (no evidence of disease) for almost two years now. While I’m still receiving treatments; this fight is far from over for me and many others with CRC, but the advances made possible by the research funded by the Ruesch Center and others are saving lives, and are improving the prospects for my long term survival from this disease. CRC is also affecting and killing more and more young people in their 30s and 40s - and finding ways to diagnose and prevent this silent killer is essential. I will be riding (full disclosure I have an electric assist bike!) and have covered my own financial commitment to the cause. But if you are so inclined to make a donation, I can assure you that it will go directly to the life saving efforts at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown!