AKRON, Ohio — When 70-year-old Sandy Selby rides, she's honoring every single person she's known who was been touched by cancer.
"Seventy-six names are on this card. These are people I knew and loved, so it's important," she said while holding back tears. "Laura just died within the last month ...a wonderful person. Greg, Jeff, Bill, Shirley, Abby, and Steve."
For the past six years, Sandy has participated in Cleveland Clinc's VeloSano Bike to Cure event.
"I had friends that did this the first year of VeloSano, and I found out about it and I wasn't a big biker, but I decided I'm going to do that," Sandy said.
Sandy is not only riding for her loved ones, she's riding for herself.
"My dermatologist saw something on my arm that he immediately thought was an issue, and so they did a biopsy. It was melanoma," Sandy said of her cancer experience more than a decade ago. "They were able to care for it with a very deep surgery that goes down, takes all the margins. And so I have a scar, but they got it all."
This year, another scare.
"They found what they thought was an ovarian cyst that turned out to be a borderline malignant tumor," Sandy said. "I had two surgeries this year including a total hysterectomy. They got it all, it was benign, and then they just have to watch it. So that was just April and May were my surgeries."
Today, Sandy is feeling good. She's going to be doing a shorter ride, but it will be a meaningful one.
"On this card, with 76 names of people that I read before I ride, I think when I'm getting tired, biking, my struggle's not anything next to the struggle that they went through," she said. "It's something we can't take for granted. It's also a reason that we need to go see our doctors because the two situations that I had personally were both found by Cleveland Clinic doctors who knew what they were doing."
Lastly, Sandy encourages anyone to get involved in VeloSano if they haven't already.
"I think to be involved in an way is uplifting," Sandy said. "Whether they're survivors, whether they're people ... anybody that knows someone that's on this list that has had cancer, which is any of us. It's just an opportunity to help others and help the community."