Ride is a call to duty for troopers

With some inspired by memories, police prepare for Pan-Mass. event

Lieutenant Michael Cooney and Sergeant Mary McCauley are members of a State Police team that will ride in the Pan-Mass. Challenge this weekend. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

This weekend, 37 State Police officers will abandon their gray and blue police cars for bicycles to ride in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, the annual charity cycling event that raises money for cancer research and treatment.

"Like most people, I've had some family members who have had cancer so I decided to step up and raise some money," said Lieutenant Michael Cooney, a 23-year State Police veteran from West Newbury.

The 50-year-old Cooney will be among approximately 5,500 people participating in the PMC. Since its inception in 1980, the event has raised more than $204 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. Cyclists aspire to raise $34 million this year.

Although many riders, including the State Police team, bike the signature 192-mile course from Sturbridge to Provincetown, participants can choose between seven routes of varying length and difficulty. They are required to raise between $1,300 and $4,000, depending on which course they select.

Cooney, formerly a police officer in Salem, is participating in memory of his wife, Maureen, who died eight years ago from cancer.

"She went into the hospital with a sore leg and a few hours later we were in the ambulance gong to Mass. General," he said. "Your life kind of falls apart and I was left with a 10- and 8-year-old to raise."

Although Cooney used to bike extensively, he cut back significantly to care for his children after his wife died.

"Since I've decided to join the team I've increased my train ing substantially," he said. "We've organized group training runs. Some of the stronger riders have tried to assist the novices."

The officers hope to raise $200,000. To accomplish this, they hosted comedy shows and auctions, a task that is more difficult given the weak economy and multitude of charities seeking donations, Sergeant Mary McCauley said.

"The ride is going to be what it is," said McCauley of Melrose. "We're pretty well fit because of our job. But, meeting the fund-raising minimum is the hard part. We just try to hammer home what the Pan-Mass. Challenge is."

The 43-year-old McCauley, who is one of the team's cocaptains, has overcome two bouts of breast cancer since 2001. When she first learned of the diagnosis she was very surprised because she was so young, she said.

"The one thing that went through my mind was my family and kids and what effect it was going to have on me long-term," she said. "I wanted to watch my kids grow up."

McCauley, who is cycling in the event for the first time, said her experience overcoming cancer led her to realize how important it is that research is well-funded.

"My ultimate goal is that we get to a point where my kids don't have to worry about this and we'll find a cure," she said. "It's out there just waiting for someone to discover it."

Stories like McCauley's and Cooney's are a major motivating factor for donors and participants, according to Billy Starr, the event's executive director and founder.

"The human component is at the center of this," Starr said. "The stories are endless."

Starr started the event with 36 riders after his mother, uncle, and cousin died from cancer in the 1970s.

"I was looking for some way to cope with the grieving process and do something meaningful with my life," said Starr, an avid biker who rides in the PMC every year. "Biking is a neat sport. There's teamwork and it's an adventure and I thought I could put at the heart of it fund-raising for a cause close to my life."

Also facing the 192-mile ride is Acton resident Dave Christmas, who first participated 12 years ago after his friend's brother died of cancer. Christmas and his team of 28 cyclists raise money by selling T-shirts and temporary tattoos in the weeks leading up to the event and at the opening ceremonies.

"The idea was to create something people could identify with," said Christmas, 54, of the team's signature logo, which features a large red tongue and the words "Lick Cancer."

At last year's event, they sold 800 to 900 T-shirts and 1,000 tattoos to fellow cyclists and spectators, raising more than $5,000.

Dr. Howard Shapiro, who has devoted much of his professional life to advancing cancer research and developing instruments to use in poorer countries, will bike the 44-mile Wellesley course.

"Instruments typically cost $100,000 or up and they are relatively large and not portable," said Shapiro, a 66-year-old West Newton resident. "But because of some of the advances that are happening with consumer electronics, you can now make the instruments cheaper and simpler."

Shapiro's father was among the first doctors to use chemotherapy and radiation to treat the disease; his mother, who died from cancer, was a microbiologist.

"I think I was interested before she was sickened by it and I was more interested after she was sickened because I knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done," Shapiro said.

In 1991, Shapiro was diagnosed with gastric lymphoma and, in 2006, a new lymphoma emerged. During both cases, Shapiro was treated with techniques he helped develop.

"Being a patient makes you a better doctor," said Shapiro, who bikes to work every day. "It also just makes you think: 'A patient is not a collection of diagnoses; they all have stories and goals and ambitions.' "

For more information about the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge or to see a list of some of the riders participating and their stories, visit pmc.org.