Annual Letter
Download PDFDear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for your donations and support for my ride in 2008. With your support we raised over $8,000 in the fight against Parkinson’s!! Once again on August 1st I will be riding in the Copper Triangle Alpine Classic for the third straight year in support of the Davis Phinney Foundation (“DPF”) and the fight against Parkinson’s disease. The DPF was founded by Davis Phinney, a retired professional cyclist who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s eight years ago. I am riding in support of this foundation on behalf of my father who was had Parkinson’s since my freshman year of college in 2001.
To give you an update on my dad’s progress to date in April of this year he had the cutting edge deep brain stimulation procedure. Deep Brain Stimulation is a relatively new surgery that assists a Parkinson’s patient with tremors and other motor skills. Just as a pacemaker transmits signals to the heart that keep it functioning properly, the Deep Brain Stimulation surgery places a pacemaker into the chest wall that transmits signals to electrodes in the brain to keep it functioning properly. You can find more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_brain_stimulation.
The surgery was a resounding success and Bill’s energy and balance have improved,
while his tremors have decreased.
This year promises to be extra special because of my dad’s progress and my mother and sister are planning on riding in the triangle alongside me. Mom and Brooke are currently training in the farmlands of Central Illinois and are looking forward to getting serious elevation gains during the Triangle. If you will be in the area during August I would love you have you join us for the ride. My college roommate is bringing a rather large contingent with him so we might even qualify as our own peloton! You can sign up for the ride at the following website: http://www.coppertriangle.com/.
Once again thank you so much for you time and generosity. I greatly appreciate your support and I know my father also does. To make donations to my ride please visit:
Best,
Brandon