My 13th Courage Classic!!!
This is my 10th year as the Captain for Wheels of Justice, and it feels like my 1st and my 100th all at once. In the last decade the funding for Childhood Cancer is still 4% of Federal Funding. The cure rate for the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders is now 85%. The treatments and clinical trials are monumental with targeted Car-T cell therapy. The research I have learned about and the developments in treating SOME cancers have been absolutely incredible. We are not done, we are barely at the starting line.
In 2016, I met the Riedels. Maybe a more apt description is I jumped into the Riedel wave. Within 20 minutes of talking to Margaret I knew we were fast friends, maybe friends from another life. I was taken with her very honest and good/bad/ugly approach to discussing Martha's treatment. You see, her 13 year old daughter had been diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma. Her baby, her teenager, one of the twins, her rock, was fighting cancer. Some days cancer was a real jerk, some days Martha was able to live a teenager life. Martha was treated at CCBD for 7 years, some of those with clean scans and No Evidence of Disease (NED). Other years she wore around a camelbak of chemo for non-stop treatments. Martha died on April 15th, 2022 at 20 years old.
Martha was one of four, ruthlessly beautiful and hilarious siblings. I think this might be the year we get Ian on a bike (Martha's oldest brother). Martha's second brother Sean may not be able to ride a regular bike, I have never actually seen it, but I do know that he has ridden a unicycle up Vail pass, a tandem on the copper triangle with his girlfriend Sophie and I think he may have set an absolutely insurmountable record on the peloton of the 7th floor. Martha was a twin, and her sister Annie now navigates life without her twin. Just the thought of it brings me to tears. To say Annie and Martha were close does not quite cover it, the twin bond and all, but I love how different they were too. When Annie tells stories, I think Martha might have been her protector, even with older brothers.
I hate that Martha isn't here, I am so thankful that I got to know her so briefly. If you didn't know Martha, here are the things I know about her. She had an incredible sense of humor, a fiercely contagious smile, an uncanny talent for art in all forms, she could be shy, she advocated for herself well beyond her age, she was an incredible bike rider and a devout bike rule follower, she LOVED her family. She was not a cancer patient, she was so so much more. And she is very missed.
Wheels is honored to ride in memory of Martha Riedel in 2025, our 20th anniversary, for a child who is forever 20 years old. Ride with us.
