Gene Connor is an average guy ...
... big brother to five siblings, husband, father, and high school teacher. He has a house, a job, and a station wagon. He and his wife are raising three children, and they work hard to make ends meet. Just like everyone else.
The Connor Family
Until 2005 his life, like so many other peoples, had been touched by cancer in only somewhat distant ways - a grandmother who died when he was a toddler, a rarely seen great-uncle, his wife's mother's friend.
Even when his biological mother went through her own bout with cancer it was before she re-entered his life in his adulthood, so he learned of it merely as a past occurrence.
Then his wife's beloved Grandmother died of cancer … and his uncle … and his wife's aunt … and a close colleague.
And in 2005 his sister Winona, a single mother raising two children, was diagnosed with cancer.
He sat by and waited for news about her surgery and recovery, and he wished he could do something more than offer emotional support.
Soon afterwards his sister Angela was diagnosed with cancer.
Once more he sat by and waited for news about her surgery and recovery, and once more he wished he could do something more than offer emotional support.
Then in 2006 he got word yet again that another sister, TaMara, had also been diagnosed with cancer … at the age of 28.
TaMara and her family
Yet again he sat by and waited for news about her surgery and recovery, and yet again he wished he could do something more than offer emotional support.
Then, just before Christmas that same year, his mother developed Merkel Cell Carninoma, a rare and aggressive form of melanoma.
He was overwhelmed.
All his instincts as a big brother and a son were to fight the enemy and beat it for them. But he couldn't - this was a battle they had to win on their own.
He felt helpless as they struggled valiantly to conquer this disease. And it was with tremendous admiration that he watched all four of them doing just that.
But he began to worry. He has another sister, and a brother, and a father, and a wife ... and three children. What about them? What if another one of them had to go to battle with cancer? How could he help them?
He needed to do more than simply sit by and wait for news. He needed to do more than offer emotional support. He needed to do more than wish.
He needed to take action.
That's when he realized that the uniting force behind all their victories was the medical research and technology that wasn't available for his grandmother. And it became his goal to help that research and technology advance even further, so his children and their children will have an even greater arsenal available to them should they or the people they love ever need it.
So he began plans for his own kind of war - a peaceful one waged on a bicycle and lasting 2,000 miles.
By December 31, 2007 he had cycled 2,154 miles and raised $12,000 for the American Cancer Society. In addition his eight-year-old daughter Sarah had started her own fundraising campaign, Connor's Army Junior, that raised an additional $1,000.
He celebrated the success of his first year's campaign with other cyclists on The Victory Ride, which has become an annual event.
Now he's planning an even more ambitious ride.
3,000 miles coast to coast to benefit Sunrise Day Camp - a full day summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings that is completely free of charge.
And he needs your support.
Enlist in Connor's Army today and help us win the war against cancer.
