Author: Jackie Roberts McDonough

Funds raised through the Ride directly benefit cancer research and critical clinical trials at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. For Jim, that mission resonates on a personal level.

“Cancer has hit close to home many times. I never met my grandmother because she passed from cancer at the age of 37. Both of my grandfathers were lost to cancer as were my mother-in-law and my father. My father so wished he had more time here on Earth. My hope and my motivation for serving on the Ride team is to do what I can to help raise funds for cancer research so that others may have a better outcome. This organization is constantly progressing with the research and the treatments that are being developed. The progress that has been made is both encouraging and wonderful.”

“Our team is made up largely of our community, and our home base is on the Seneca Nation Territory, but our team also branches out with other Native Nations,” said Geneva.

With riders from several other indigenous communities joining the movement, Team Wheel Strong’s efforts to raise awareness for Roswell Park spread far beyond Ride Weekend. 

“It started out as community involvement. We had a lot of pop-up rides that first year because our kids wanted to get on their bikes. We would advertise these pop-up rides and charge a small fee for families,” Geneva explained. “It was more or less to provide a safe place for our community members to ride with their families on territory because we don’t have sidewalks and the roads are very busy. We would use our community center, and everybody was just so supportive.”

The more they got involved, the more they came across other people who had been affected by cancer. Those personal connections are what the team captains believe have helped Wheel Strong gain so much momentum.

“If you count all the support around us, it’s around 65 people. There are people who are involved and don’t ride, but they do a lot of the work and they’re the ones who deserve a lot of recognition,” said Eliot.

Cancer care is not one-size-fits-all, and Dr. Zsiros prides herself on really getting to know the women she serves.

“We walk the path together, from the time of diagnosis, the surgery, all the chemotherapies until their cancer journey is through.”

It’s because of those relationships that Dr. Zsiros is even more motivated to discover new breakthroughs that can improve and extend life.

“My research focuses on ovarian cancer research and immunotherapy. I think this is a deadly disease that typically doesn’t get a lot of attention. Part of that is because it affects women, but a minority of women,” Dr. Zsiros explained. “When the mother falls ill, it tends to affect the entire family due to her common role as the primary caregiver. This type of research not only assists our patients directly but also has a broader impact, often benefiting multiple generations under the familial umbrella she heads.”

Staff members with the Department of Gynecological Oncology stand by those families every day at Roswell Park, but they also come together to show their support during Ride Weekend.