Tuesday, August 14, 2007

PPRAC Stories: Bill


The Inspired Rider
Originally uploaded by hanskneller.
I have a few photos of him, but this shot by my friend Hans is the best one I found.

Bill's son is a testicular cancer survivor, and in the course of his son's illness and treatment, Bill became involved with an online support group. Needless to say, he became very close to a lot of people struggling with this disease, and with their families.

Every night after dinner, he would announce that he was riding for a particular person the next day: someone who survived, or was still undergoing treatment, or maybe someone who didn't make it. He would wear a LiveStrong shirt, and have everyone sign it, and after the ride he was sending the shirts to these people or their families.

There were a lot of true athletes on this ride; Bill was a decent rider but he was not one of the hotshots gobbling up the miles like they were nothing. Especially on the tough days he rode on pure heart.

He definitely earned my respect, I'm proud to just know what he did.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are such touching & interesting stories wound about the PPRAC event.

Don said...

Every picture tells a story, don't it?