ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Lena Faeskorn, left, and her father Olaf will be riding in the Pan-Mass challenge together.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — For one Swampscott family taking the Pan-Mass Challenge, the event’s mission hits close to home.
The Pan-Mass Challenge raises money for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through an annual bike ride. The organization was founded by Billy Starr in 1980 and aspires to provide Dana-Farber’s doctors and researchers with the resources to find cures to all cancers, according to the organization’s website.
The Faeskorn family — Amy, Olaf and their children, Lena, 13, and Toby, 10 — have all participated in the event in the past, either through volunteering or taking the challenge by cycling.
This year, Olaf, 47, and Lena are riding 47 miles during a one-day ride from Wellesley to Wellesley on Aug. 6, which starts at Babson College, goes to Patriot Place in Foxborough, and then comes back. They will be riding in memory of Amy’s mother, Adrienne Powell, who succumbed to endometrial cancer in 2013, when she was 67.
Olaf has been cycling in the Pan-Mass Challenge since 2010 — he had volunteered in the event the year before when he was working in finance at Dana-Farber. He said he had been riding road bikes since he was a teenager and it seemed like a logical step to take the challenge the following year.
On the family’s mind at the time was Amy’s friend, Connie, who had died from ovarian cancer in 2010.
Powell was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the cancer a year later, in 2011, when she was living in Santa Fe, N.M. Amy said the family convinced her mother to come back to Massachusetts to receive “the best treatment in the world” at Dana-Farber, so Powell took a medical leave from her teaching job.
Lena has been participating in the kids’ ride since 2011. She aged into the adult ride this year when she turned 13. Her brother, Toby has also done the kids’ ride, but he is taking the year off.
“We definitely felt like it was a way to pay (Dana-Farber) back,” Amy Faeskorn said. “She got such amazing quality of care there. I can’t say enough about how thorough, personal, caring. Every aspect of the organization is just wonderful. Even though my mom ultimately succumbed to the cancer, it still feels like a way to pay them back.”
Amy said her mother was treated initially for about a year with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Then, she went into remission. About three years after her diagnosis, she required surgery after a small spot was found on her lung. She was treated again at Dana-Farber for the lung surgery, which turned out to have been spread from the first cancer. She opted not to have follow-up radiation.
When Powell was back in Santa Fe, Amy said her mother wasn’t acting like herself mentally. Amy received a phone call from a neurosurgeon who told her that her mother needed emergency brain surgery.The cancer had metastasized and a large mass on her brain had been found. She survived the surgery, but only for a few months.
Lena said she got involved because of her grandmother. Since this is the first year she is doing the adult ride, she said more training is required. She admitted she’s a bit nervous — she’s more comfortable riding next to cars from training on roads, but endurance-wise, the hills get her a little concerned.
Olaf said it’s inspiring to see all of the riders and survivors participating in the event. It’s an incredible cause, he added, and one of the most incredible charities in the country — all of the funds raised goes toward research.
According to its website, the Pan-Mass Challenge raises more money for charity than any other athletic fundraising event in the country. Since its inception, the event has contributed $547 million to lifesaving cancer research.
Olaf and Lena each have fundraising goals — they need to raise $1,200 and $600 respectively by the beginning of October. They each have online Pan-Mass Challenge profiles, where people can make a donation. Others doing the two-day ride have larger fundraising goals.
Amy, who volunteers on site to prep for when riders come back, which includes site beautification, or keeping the area clean, said it’s always emotional for her every year at the starting line.
“It’s always very emotional because the people who participate are there almost always because they’ve been touched somehow by cancer, and yet the focus of the event is very positive,” she said. “It’s kind of the power of taking something that is so difficult and can cause so much suffering, and turning it around into something that can be very healing and potentially have an impact on everyone who is touched by cancer — because all the cutting-edge research that they do there has a ripple effect in the medical community.
“That’s what I think keeps us coming back as a family. It’s a really positive day with a lot of amazing people, committed people. It’s just a really great experience.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.