Hi friends and family, 

As you may have guessed, I’m committing myself to the Pan-Florida Challenge Cancer Ride again this year.  I want to share this experience with my fellow riders in order to do something to help the cause and I need your help. Not only do I have to do a tremendous amount of training, I’ll need to raise money to distribute nutritious cancer fighting foods to hungry kids, to fund cancer prevention research, and to support cancer patients and their families.

The following is a great summary of what Pan-Florida is all about. 

Cancer touches nearly everyone...

Pan-Florida Challenge has long known that hunger greatly affects a child's performance and behavior in school. Studies also show that lack of nutrition or bad nutrition can drastically affect many aspects of health, including the risk of developing diseases like cancer. Pan-Florida Challenge recently expanded their mission to include cancer prevention so that even more people can be helped.

Consider these facts:

• According to the World Health Organization, maintaining a healthy diet and increasing physical activity is an important approach to cancer control.
• A cancer diagnosis can place undue financial burdens on patients and their families. Many patients and family care-givers need to alter their employment status, resulting in potential lost income and loss of insurance coverage.
• According to CancerCare, 70% of patients reported financial hardships because of cancer-related expenses. 50% of patients cut back on grocery expenses because they couldn't afford to buy food and pay for treatments.
• In just five years, Pan-Florida Challenge has provided over 6 million meals to hungry children, providing healthy buidling blocks for their future.

This March, I will join hundreds of other riders who are all committed to fighting cancer. I will endure physical pain in my committment to ride so together we can help those in our community who need it the most. Just $25 will provide nutritious cancer fighting foods to a hungry child for a month. $100 will pay the electric bill of a cancer patient who is struggling to make ends meet.  Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up!

We can fight this - together. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and thousands of people in need will thank you, too.

Sincerely yours,

Mary Ann Cullen