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PITTSBURG —
All of the Bike the US for MS riders have their own stories to tell.
Jennifer Cherry, Normal, Ill., rides in memory of her beloved mother, while Robert Beger, Bartlett, Tenn., is saving his own life. Jack and Anne Dillon are getting a look at small-town America.
The trip started June 1 in Yorktown, Va., and is scheduled to conclude Aug. 1 in San Francisco, following the TransAmerica route. That’s a total of 3,785 miles, and the riders are averaging 65 miles a day.
The 21 riders stopped overnight Tuesday in Pittsburg, and were treated to a meal prepared by local volunteers in the lower level of Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.
“Most of these riders have someone they know with MS,” Dillon said. “I have a few friends with MS and, at one point, the doctors thought I might have it.”
Instead, he had Gullain-Barre syndrome, which can have symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis. However, there’s one big difference.
“You can get over Gullain-Barre,” Dillon said. “You do not get over MS.”
Part of his work on the trip is to do public relations, including providing information on MS to the public. He explained that MS is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. There are approximately 400,000 people with MS in the United States, with 200 more diagnosed every week.
MS is two or three times more common among women than men. The course of the disease is unpredictable and can vary greatly from one person to another.
It is not generally considered to be a fatal disease, but Jennifer Cherry has heartbreaking first-hand knowledge that MS can be a killer.
“I’m riding to honor my beautiful mother, Elizabeth,” she said. “She was diagnosed with MS in 1997 and died in 2011 as a result of MS.”
She had a special memorial shirt made for the ride, with a sunflower on the front.
“My mother loved sunflowers, and the dropping petals represent the abilities she lost to MS,” Cherry said. “She lost the ability to walk and a lot of the ability to use her hands, so she was no longer able to play the piano.”
She said that the ride has been good for her.
“It’s a way for me to think things through and find some peace,” Cherry said. “It has given me purpose.”
Robert Beger, 61, a German teacher from Bartlett, Tenn., is the oldest rider on the trip.
All of the Bike the US for MS riders have their own stories to tell.
Jennifer Cherry, Normal, Ill., rides in memory of her beloved mother, while Robert Beger, Bartlett, Tenn., is saving his own life. Jack and Anne Dillon are getting a look at small-town America.
The trip started June 1 in Yorktown, Va., and is scheduled to conclude Aug. 1 in San Francisco, following the TransAmerica route. That’s a total of 3,785 miles, and the riders are averaging 65 miles a day.
The 21 riders stopped overnight Tuesday in Pittsburg, and were treated to a meal prepared by local volunteers in the lower level of Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.
“Most of these riders have someone they know with MS,” Dillon said. “I have a few friends with MS and, at one point, the doctors thought I might have it.”
Instead, he had Gullain-Barre syndrome, which can have symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis. However, there’s one big difference.
“You can get over Gullain-Barre,” Dillon said. “You do not get over MS.”
Part of his work on the trip is to do public relations, including providing information on MS to the public. He explained that MS is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system. There are approximately 400,000 people with MS in the United States, with 200 more diagnosed every week.
MS is two or three times more common among women than men. The course of the disease is unpredictable and can vary greatly from one person to another.
It is not generally considered to be a fatal disease, but Jennifer Cherry has heartbreaking first-hand knowledge that MS can be a killer.
“I’m riding to honor my beautiful mother, Elizabeth,” she said. “She was diagnosed with MS in 1997 and died in 2011 as a result of MS.”
She had a special memorial shirt made for the ride, with a sunflower on the front.
“My mother loved sunflowers, and the dropping petals represent the abilities she lost to MS,” Cherry said. “She lost the ability to walk and a lot of the ability to use her hands, so she was no longer able to play the piano.”
She said that the ride has been good for her.
“It’s a way for me to think things through and find some peace,” Cherry said. “It has given me purpose.”
Robert Beger, 61, a German teacher from Bartlett, Tenn., is the oldest rider on the trip.
“I tell people I’m coming back from the dead,” he said. “About two years ago I had my second heart attack, and a couple of months after that I had a mild stroke. I had been pretty obese for 15 years. My cardiologist told me, ‘You’d better get better or make arrangements’. I decided I’d get better or die trying. I’d take five-minute or 10-minute walks and get chest pains.”
However, Beger gradually worked up to longer walks and ate more healthfully.
“In January I got an old bike and started commuting to school. I’d get there white as a sheet and sweating,” he said. “Now I’ve lost 75 pounds and ride 100-mile days.”
He became interested in Bike the US for MS after a friend was diagnosed with the disease and suggested that Beger do a shorter MS ride.
“I was praying a lot, too, and all that winter I increasingly felt like a lot of prayers were being answered,” he said. “I got online, came across Bike the US for MS, prayed about it for a few days and decided that’s what I was going to do. I’ve been training with my road bike since March.”
Beger said that, as he became increasingly aware of MS, he learned of many more people who had the disease.
“I have a list of names and every day I put one of those names in my map case and dedicate the day’s ride to that person,” he said. “It makes me stronger.”
Dillon and his wife are neighbors in Towson, Md., of Dale and Christine Johnson.
“Dale did the ride two years ago, and my wife and I had always wanted to go across the country and see it not from the interstate but from the backroads,” he said. “Dale is leader of the ride this year, and his wife drives a scout vehicle that goes out each morning and checks the route. My wife and I are in the sweep vehicle which follows the riders in case they have a breakdown or need water or fruit. We also do the shopping.”
Dillon said that he and his wife are like the “grandparents” of the riders, and occasionally spoil them with treats of animal crackers or watermelon.
“We’ve been so impressed with the riders,” he said.
Dillon has also been impressed with the reception they receive in small towns and with the generosity of strangers who open their hearts and wallets to donate to the battle against MS.
He said that together all the Bike the US for MS rides have raised more than $200,000 this year, money that will help fund research into new treatments for MS.
This is very gratifying to Cherry.
“When you have a friend or loved one with MS, there’s not a whole lot you can do for them, but this is limitless,” she said. “Maybe the money we raise will help to find a cure so that other people won’t have to suffer like my mother did.”
