LYNNFIELD — Spectacular weather greeted more than 200 cyclists for the 18th annual Reid’s Ride 28-mile bike ride as they set off from Lynnfield High School to Gloucester to fight Adolescent & Young Adult cancer.
The event raised more than $200,000, making it the most successful Reid’s Ride since the event began in 2005.
“This year’s Reid’s Ride hit it out of the park,” said Reid’s Ride Director Lorraine Sacco and co-founder (with husband Gene Sacco) of the Reid R. Sacco AYA Cancer Alliance and mother of Reid R. Sacco, a 2003 Lynnfield High graduate who died from cancer at the age of 20 in 2005.
A National Honor Society scholar, musician, and state record-setting swimmer, Reid Sacco was ready to take on the world after being accepted to Columbia University. Just a few weeks before graduation, he learned he had cancer. After battling the disease for two years, he died in April of 2005.
“When we started the AYA Cancer Alliance 18 years ago and held the first Reid’s Ride, our dream was to make a revolutionary impact on the lives of AYAs diagnosed with cancer,” said Lorraine Sacco at the Stage Fort Park finish line. “That dream has come true. Today we broke all Reid’s Ride records for fundraising and turnout of riders, volunteers and supporters today!
After holding the event virtually in 2020 and 2021, the ride returned this year to its traditional format as an in-person event. Aptly enough, the theme for this year’s ride, held on July 17, was, “Together, Riding Free toward a Future that is Cancer-Free.”
Sacco’s niece, Venere Salzillo, sang the Miley Cyrus hit “The Climb” to open the day. Sacco said the song symbolizes the hard road facing cancer patients and their families.
“For them there always seems to be another mountain to climb and another battle to fight,” said Sacco.
Ella Price rode this year in memory of her friend, Sophia Maglione, who died at the age of 12 from Medulloblastoma.
“This year was the most inspirational for us and for many. Ella’s determination as she trained for this day, in honor of her friend Sophie, energized all of us,” Ella’s mother Kathryn Price said.
Lynnfield High Football and Boys Lacrosse Coach Pat Lamusta and several football players from the new Pioneers Football Leadership Initiative rode on the Team Always Sonny team in honor of Benjamin “Sonny” Tropeano, who died unexpectedly at the age of 10 in 2015.
“I am riding because it is important to remember someone who was part of the football community in Lynnfield whose life was cut down far too early,” Lamusta said. “Our team rides to remember Sonny, who would have been part of our team this year, and to heighten awareness of the importance for young people to participate in community events and give back.”
Reid’s Ride has been the primary fundraising event for the Reid R. Sacco AYA Cancer Alliance, an all-volunteer organization established in 2005. The ride started as an idea of Reid’s. He envisioned a bike-ride fundraiser to help young adults like himself navigate the uncharted waters of AYA cancer. During his battle with a sarcoma from 2003 to 2005, he and other AYAs diagnosed with cancer encountered all manner of gaps and barriers in seeking and finding the short-term and long-term medical care they needed. It turned out that AYAs diagnosed with cancer fell tragically into a gap between pediatric oncology and adult oncology.
Sacco said the implications were catastrophic. Survival rates in cancer patients between ages 15 and 39 were far worse than those in children and older adults. Unlike these same two groups, improvement in survival rates for AYAs had not improved in decades. One barrier standing in the way of progress was the fact that AYAs were almost universally ineligible for clinical trials because trials typically recruited only pediatric patients, adult patients, or patients with more common cancer types.
AYAs fortunate enough to survive cancer faced additional hurdles and barriers. These AYA cancer survivors often found it impossible to resume their education, to start careers, to recover from debt accumulated from uninsured hospital and treatment costs, to start families of their own, and to find primary care that could provide the specialized long-term health monitoring they need.
The alliance established Reid R. Sacco AYA Cancer Programs at Tufts Medical Center and Connecticut Children’s Hospital.
“They were among the earliest AYA Programs in the country and remain two of the most innovative and comprehensive programs nationally and internationally,” said Sacco. “We never imagined we’d make such a revolutionary impact for this and future generations of AYAs diagnosed with cancer.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
