My niece, Samantha Gilley, is a 17 year old St. Jude Hospital patient that has dreamed for several years of a bike ride from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Memphis, Tennessee, to raise money for children with cancer.

Samantha has battled cancer her entire life. The cancer and the subsequent radiation and chemotherapy treatments have taken a physical toll on Sam. She has lost her sight, her hearing in one hear, and portions of her cheek bone and jaw.

Still a patient at St. Jude, Samantha has many friends among the other patients and staff at St. Jude. Sam is driven to do something that will help raise money for the hospital that has saved her life on several occasions. In addition to the radio-thons in which she regularly participates, Samantha wanted to do something unique to draw attention to the dedicated doctors, nurses and researchers at St. Jude.

Several years ago the Rush Miller Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation gave Samantha a tandem bicycle. Since then, she has convinced several people to take her riding. These rides give Sam freedom to go places, feel breezes, enjoy sounds, smells, speed, and physical exertion. She and I made several trips in and around the Chattanooga area. It was on one of these trips that we began joking about a trip across the state, all the way to St. Jude. I now realize that she wasn’t joking.

The Ride