Please Check In!

Every now and then, Cece gets a certain  type of email from her women's cycling club Women Riding Well.  The email makes Cece's heart skip a beat. The email Cece got this past Thursday morning began like this:

"This morning a cyclist was killed on Tramway.  Please send us an email and let us know that you are ok."

This is the dreaded  email.  It make Cece think of how dangerous cycling can be and it also makes her worry that one of her friends...or someone that she does not even know has been killed by a car while cycling.  In
the case this past Thursday, a car seems to have jumped the median and hit the cyclist.

Cece and her friends have attended several ghost bike memorials.  A ghost bike is a bike that is placed at or near the crash site to honor the slain cyclist.

"Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in over 150 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again -- but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed."

Albuquerque has several of these memorials around town....and several.... is several too many.

The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

A few months ago, Cece was given a huge 600 page book with the above named title by Siddartha Mukherjee.  Cece discovered the other day, that he has won the Pulitzer prize for writing this book!  So, when she was asked to give a talk to the Leukemia Lymphoma's cycling team on Saturday, she immediately thought she might talk about this book.

Honestly, the book was overwhelming, emotional and very medical, and she was unable to finish it, but still it was one of the most fascinating books she has read in a long while....for the sheer fact that it informed her about where the field of cancer research has come from...all the way back to discovering tumors of cancer in Egyptian mummies!

This team in front of her and the ones she has ridden on in the past, are all  raising money to fund blood cancer research and leukemia was the predominate cancer in the book.  Cece wanted the team to hear about this book so they could "make real"  the efforts that the raising of money to fund research and their efforts on the bike were realizing!

As she looked to her right, as she spoke to the team, she saw THIS man, nodding his head in understanding.    This is Dr. Clark Haskins who is an oncologist here in Albuquerque.  He is one of the beloved  Dr.s that rides with the cycling team and is in the trenches every day treating people with cancer.  At a rest area, Cece commented on his "bones" cycling jersey and he replied, "You should have seen me on Cinco De Mayo!  I had on a big sombrero and a serape and I was all decked out."  Cece said, I bet you got people laughing."

He stated, "I have to make people  laugh!"