We made it!

Pictured on the right is (most of) the Maryland Team-in-Training at 6 AM, 7 June 2009, just prior to the start of the 100-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (www.lls.org). Including us, all Maryland riders completed the century ride. Each of the 23 team members from the state (along with 1500 riders nationwide) rode these 100 miles in one day to raise $6.8M for cancer patients and for cancer research. Personally, team Next Generation raised close to $12K, thanks to your generosity.

We are particularly glad to have participated this year at this time, as Rachel Minkove, one of the patients we are riding in honor of (see below), is undergoing a bone marrow transplant this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Minkove family as they go through this grueling process.

Thank you kindly for your generous support.

Rachel Minkove has been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma since she was diagnosed in Oct. 2008. After completing six months of chemotherapy treatments every other week, she must continue with more intense treatment and a scheduled bone marrow transplant from her younger brother, Sam, who is a perfect match as well 2009 graduate from the University of Maryland. Rachel, 25, is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, with a B.A. in history. She taught elementary schoolchildren in Los Angeles for two years and moved to New York last summer, a few blocks from her older brother, Jon. Drawing support from her loving family and community, she temporarily moved home and is being treated at The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Dr. Adel Ibrahim was stricken with Lymphoma in 2003 at the age of 56. Since then he has endured several rounds of chemotherapy and most recently underwent a bone marrow transplant. His treatments, due to their complexity, have required him to be away from home and hospitalized for many months at a time. Dr. Ibrahim was a surgeon and loved his work. He found nothing more rewarding than a full day in the operating room and spending time with his patients. Lymphoma took Dr. Ibrahim's ability to work away, depriving him from making a living and enjoying what should have been the most fulfilling years of his career. Still, watching his daughter, Sherrine, currently a third year resident in the department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, already carrying on his devotion and dedication to helping others is an enormous boost to his outlook for the future, especially now as he anxiously awaits the arrival of her first child this April. Dr. Adel Ibrahim is grateful for the efforts of those who try to make a difference and prays that one day soon a cure will be found for Lymphoma.

The late Mel Lerner, DDS fought a long battle with multiple myeloma; longer than anyone believed (except maybe he). Not many thought that Mel would live to see the birth of his fifth grandchild, Refael Simcha. Prayer, love, and experimental treatments kept him alive almost until Rafi was 2 and he was privileged to have 2 more grandchildren after him. We train and ride in memory of Mel and in honor of the loving family he left behind.