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Riding for a cure and honoring a mother’s memory
(by Megan Burrow - September 16, 2008)
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Photo Courtesy Of Kathy McCullough
The McCullough sisters, Kathy, Kelly and Karen, pictured here in 2007, have ridden in the Pan-Mass Challenge for the past six years in honor of their mother, Ellen, who died of leiomyosarcoma in 2003. Since its inception in 1980, the PM, a 170-mile, two-day bike ride through Massachusetts has raised over $200 million for cancer research and treatment.
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This past month, sisters Kathy McCullough and Kelly McCullough Huber, rode their bikes in the two-day Pan-Massachusetts Challenge to raise money for cancer research. Karen McCullough Dell’Aglio, the third of the triplet sisters, is pregnant and rode in a chase car cheering them on.
This was the sixth year the sisters have participated in the race in honor of their mother, Ellen McCullough who died in 2003 at the age of 58 from leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that affects only four people in every million.
When the sisters were 10, just a few days after their parents’ anniversary, their father Peter, a pilot for Eastern Airlines, died in a plane crash over Queens, N.Y. The family had just moved to Park Ridge two years before, and at age 31, Ellen was left a widow, with a new house in a still unfamiliar neighborhood and four young daughters, the triplets and an older sister, Helen, to raise on her own.
What she did next continues to amaze her daughters. Despite all the challenges, Ellen managed to continually be there for her kids, acting as the sole provider, caregiver and disciplinarian of the family.
“She was like a gift to us,” says Kathy, who still resides in Park Ridge in the house the girls grew up in. “She was just incredible.”
After their father died so suddenly, Ellen made sure the girls enjoyed as happy a childhood as possible, taking family vacations every year and staying involved in the community.
“She would not just have us in CCD, she would teach CCD,” says Kathy with a laugh. “Girl Scouts – we weren’t just in it, she was the leader. She had to be both the supportive one and the one to set limits, and she did both and did it very well. She believed that even though my dad passed, she didn’t want to sit there with a blanket on her head, she wanted to enjoy life.”
After watching their mother battle her disease for two years, the sisters began thinking of ways to give back in honor of the woman who had given them so much. “She was in and out of the hospital, suffered through all kinds of complications, and never once complained through any of it,” Kathy says.
When Ellen had first become ill, they had been researching the disease and had learned about an annual bike ride in Boston called the Pan Mass Challenge (PMC), which raises money for cancer research. The PMC donates every penny of the money raised by riders to the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the principle teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Riders travel through 46 towns and traverse 170 miles during the two-day ride. This past year 5,500 riders from 40 states participated, many of them cancer survivors or riding in honor of someone they have lost to the disease, raising more money than any other athletic fundraising event in the country. Since its inception in 1980, the PMC has raised over $200 million for cancer research and treatment.
For the McCullough sisters, the race serves as a way to help others suffering from cancer, as well as a way to honor their mother’s memory.
Kathy explained why the race is so important to her. “I’m not a researcher, I’m not a doctor, so I can’t find the cure for cancer. But if we can help raise the money to help those people do that, well, then we’re helping.”
For many participants, the ride is physically demanding and can be a struggle, but the stories heard along the way provide the motivation to help them keep pedaling. People ride with pictures printed on their backs of the person they have lost to the disease. For the past six years, the triplets have worn shirts that read “Ellen’s Angels” on the back in honor of their mother. This year, Kathy’s boyfriend gave them all halos to wear over their heads.
“It’s definitely a physical challenge,” acknowledges Kathy. “But you feel, how could I stop when I watched how my mother fought the disease?”
There are people who are currently in treatment for cancer who ride, and one rider lost his leg when he was 10 from a sarcoma. “It took him 10 years to build up the endurance in the good leg in order to ride,” Kathy says with amazement. “He’s ridden in it every year. He goes flying past us – ‘Hey girls! I remember you from last year!’ It helps you forget about the mileage and remember why you are riding.”
People make friendships and connections on the ride that last far longer than the 170 mile distance. People have met and gotten married from the ride, have formed lasting friendships, and most importantly, have raised millions for a cure.
As part of the ride there is a “pedal partner program” where cyclists can connect with a pediatric oncology patient currently going through treatments at the hospital. Many of the children come to the ride and cheer the participants on.
In addition to the PMC, the sisters hold an annual golf outing at the River Vale Country Club in honor of their mom to raise money and awareness specifically for leiomyosarcoma, a form of cancer which attracts little research and is still a mystery to many doctors because of its rarity.
The sisters began holding the outing the year after their mom passed away, and in many ways it acts as a reunion for friends and family, all of the people Ellen touched while alive.
“We know that certain friends of my mom, we’re only going to see them that day and my sister who lives in Delaware will come with her kids,” Kathy explained. “My mom was kind of the person that got all the neighbors together. She was the one who always organized the outings. Now, many of the neighbors have moved out of the area, but they come back for the golf outing. It helps us keep their memories alive.”
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
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