Inspired to help others after learning about cancer’s effects, Terry Bourgeois founded Empire State Ride, an annual cycling event that raises money for cancer research and trials. The statewide fundraiser was founded in 2014, and the Long Island regional fundraiser now enters its fifth year, with new additions coming to the biking routes.
The one-day fundraiser, which will tour the North Shore on Saturday, June 14, features four different routes for different ability levels.
The Town of Oyster Bay has raised almost $500,000 as an event partner in the past five years. On Thursday, June 5, the town, Empire State Ride, and Catholic Health representatives announced the annual fundraiser.
“With two wheels on the ground, you can change the world,” said Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino.
“We are on the cusp of a new era of cancer treatments,” Bourgeois said.
All of the event’s courses will cater to bikers of all age levels, skills, and abilities and will start in downtown Oyster Bay on Audrey Avenue. There will be an eight-mile, 25-mile, 37-mile, and 62-mile course, with some going as far as Roslyn.
“Each course will span a different section of the town’s north shore,” Saladino said.
Bourgeois said his wife is a cancer survivor who underwent over 430 hours of chemotherapy and had a 12-hour procedure to remove a tumor, as well as one kidney and part of her large intestine.
“But she is still riding her bike to end cancer,” he said.
Empire State Ride started its New York fundraiser in 2014 with the goal of creating regional rides as well, he said. Bourgeois, a veteran, said that once he came home from deployment and learned more about the disease, he was inspired to play a role in helping find a cure.
He said the Empire State Ride Long Island was formed five years ago. This year, he said the organization put on a beta Hudson Valley regional ride and looks forward to implementing other regional fundraisers in the future.
The Town of Oyster Bay has been partnering with the regional bike riding fundraiser since its inception five years ago, raising $500,000 for research and clinical trials.
Dr. Ashish Sangal, the division chief of hematology and oncology at the Catholic Health Cancer Institute, said the healthcare system is on the “leading edge” of cancer research and is currently exploring new treatment therapies and methods.
“I’m honored to be here,” said Carol Silva, the first recipient of the Empire State Ride Long Island Courage Award. Silva said almost six years ago, her doctors told her that she had a golf ball-sized tumor in her lung and 12 tumors in her brain. She said over the years, several other cancers were found in her body.
Silva said without her family’s and community’s support, as well as the funding that brings new treatments and drugs, she “wouldn’t be here.”
“The drug that I’m on is the result of a clinical trial, so I know firsthand the importance of research and the importance of clinical trials and drugs and studying drugs that can prevent cancer,” said Stacy Sager, this year’s Courage Award winner. Sager, a three-time cancer survivor and correspondent from WABC, said her cancer treatment is set to end on Friday, June 5, after almost a year of undergoing treatment.
Saladino said Sager has saved “countless lives” by motivating people to go to their regularly scheduled checkups and follow the rules that medical professionals set. He encouraged Long Island residents to participate in the biking fundraiser this month.
“Take part, be competitive, raise money and help in the cure for cancer by getting on two wheels,” Saladino said.
“Ride, ride, ride,” Silva said.
For more information and to register, visit esrlongisland.com.
