© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.
|
Bruce Springsteen sends video message, sings ‘Born to Run’ for Pan-Mass Challenge riders in Worcester
|
In 1984 Billy Starr, founder and chairman of the Pan-Mass Challenge, wrote a letter to Bruce Springsteen inviting him to show up at the annual bike ride and fundraiser for cancer research at Dana-Farber Institute in Boston.
Forty-two years later, the Boss delivered Friday when he surprised riders with a pre-recorded message and an acoustic rendition of his anthem, “Born to Run,” during the annual “State of PMC” program at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.
“Hello Billy, Paul and the whole PMC family, ” Springsteen said, gently strumming his guitar on video. “Weeee’re a little late, but here we are and it’s a pleasure to be with you.”
“Since 1980, you have inspired a community that has done something remarkable,” the 76-year-old rocker said. “You’ve never stopped believing that ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference, and because of that,countless lives have been saved.”
The PMC, held every year on the first weekend of August, has raised over $1 billion dollars for cancer research at Dana-Farber since its founding in 1980.
This year, the ride-a-thon on Aug. 1 and 2 aims to raise $79 million, with 6,500 riders expected to take part from Worcester and Wellesley to Cape Cod. There are 14 routes, with riders able to choose paths ranging from 25 miles to 187 miles.
Starr announced recently that he won’t be riding this year due to an injury suffered in a bike crash. But he’ll be rooting on the riders. This year’s theme is “Now More Than Ever.”
“This year, now more than ever that work has never been more important,” Starr said on the video, an apparent reference to government cuts to science funding. “Now More than ever, because the moment we’re living in demands it.”
For Springsteen, cancer and Dana Farber is personal. His wife Patti Scialfa is being treated for multiple myeloma there by Dr. Paul G. Richardson.
Scialfa has been living with the disease for more than eight years, but is now “thankfully in remission,” Springsteen said.
“However, like millions of families facing cancer, we’ve learned what every patient learns, [that] hope has a face,” Springsteen said. “It’s our physician who refuses to stop searching and caring, [and] it’s our nurse who sits beside us when we’re scared and always makes our journey just a little bit easier.”
Springsteen said that everyday Richardson and his team provide “hope and amazing care” to all his patients and their families, including for him and his wife Patti.
Springsteen said his wife’s journey has taught him something he hope every American can understand.
“Medical research isn’t an idea,” Springsteen said. “It isn’t politics, it isn’t a line in a budget. It’s the reason families find hope when hope seems hardest to find. When we lose sight of that, we lose sight of one another, and that’s too high a price for anyone to pay.”
Springsteen said he has spent his life “writing songs about the people who keep believing when life gives them every reason not to,” and “those who refuse to leave someone behind.
“That’s always been the best of America to Patti and I…,” Springsteen said. “Now, more than ever, the world needs more everyday heroes like the folks who make up the PMC.”
He then capped off the message with a final salute to the PMC participants before performing “Born to Run,” which he said is “one of my best riding songs.”
