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Bill Wates
Cyclist, Closer to Free Ride 2012, 2013
Bill Wates’s Closer to Free Ride story began in 2011 when his wife Cheryl, a nurse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Cheryl’s early diagnosis and her profession made treatment options simpler and she was immediately treated at Smilow. “The treatment Cheryl received was top notch and could not have been better,” he recalls.
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Betsy Holbrook
Volunteer, Closer to Free Ride 2012, 2013
On a September Saturday in 2011, as Betsy Holbrook drove through Guilford, she was surprised at the number of bikes on the road. “At the time I was far too distracted to figure out why they were there.” Betsy recalls. Little did she know that her destination that day was directly related to those many bikes.
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Rachel Stollman
Cyclist, Closer to Free Ride 2012
Rachel Stollman was all set to ride in the inaugural 2011 Closer to Free Ride with her friend Chris, who had recently been diagnosed with Non–Hodgkins Lymphoma and learned about the Ride at Smilow. Chris was eventually too ill to ride, so Rachel made the decision not to go it alone and bowed out. But, when it was time to commit again in 2012, knew what she needed to do. “As he spent the next year in and out of the hospital,” she remembers, “I decided that I would ride in 2012 matter what.”
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Stephanie Schilling
Cyclist, Closer to Free Ride 2012
Stephanie Schilling threw her bike and a rolled up black dress into her car as she sped toward upstate New York in the summer of 2012. Twenty-seven hours later she lost her mother to cancer. She also started a pilgrimage of her own…training for the Closer to Free Century
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Steve Fischbach
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
Steve Fischbach had never ridden his bike 65 miles in his life. But last year his friend Regina convinced him to ride with her and her survivor wife Amy. Not only did Steve ride 65 miles, but also he became hooked on the magic that is the Closer to Free Ride.
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Stephen Ackley-Ortiz
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
In December 2010, Stephen Ackley-Ortiz was 52 years old, in his new dream job at NYU School of Law, and felt that he and his wife, Ramie, were in a good place in their lives. Earlier that month, however, he had developed a nagging sore throat that just seemed to hang on, and then he noticed what he thought was a swollen lymph node in his neck the week after Christmas.
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Julie Beck
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
Julie Beck has worked as an oncology nurse at Yale-New Haven for five years and is proud to be leading a Closer to Free Ride team of nurses and other members of the interdisciplinary care team from Smilow 11. Her team, The Heme Rollers, is named for the type of malignancies most of her patients are battling - hematologic. She's riding for her cousins, her colleagues and most of all, for all of her Smilow patients and families.
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Steve Norcia
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
Losing his father, mother-in-law and a good friend to cancer has given Steve Norcia more than his share of the disease. So what is he doing to fight back? Steve’s riding his bike 100 miles in his first Closer to Free Ride on September 8. And just for good measure, he’s currently CTFR’s top fundraiser. Did we mention he’s doing all of this in his 70’s? Read more about Steve’s amazing commitment.
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Dr. Howard Hochster
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
In 1986, Dr. Howard Hochster traveled to Brussels for a one-year Fulbright fellowship in oncology and pharmacology. Before long, he discovered the national sport of cycling and began taking long rides into the forests, south of the city, with his newly found cycling club. After a four hour ride, they’d enjoy some wonderful Belgian beer for at least that long. He was hooked on cycling (if not Belgian beer). Today, Hochster heads up clinical trials for Yale Cancer Center and he’s looking forward to his second Closer to Free Ride. This year it will be even closer to his Belgian experience, with the addition of a beer garden at the Yale Bowl.
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Jennifer Ford-Chatfield
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
As the owner of Fleur de Lys Floral, Jennifer Ford-Chatfield is typically surrounded by stunning, natural beauty. But in 2010, when she was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma, her world was turned upside down and even the most beautiful bloom couldn’t help her overcome her shock and fear. Jennifer and her husband, Thomas, turned to Smilow Cancer Hospital for life-saving help.
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Jeanne Czel: Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride,2012
Marci Czel: Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride, 2011 & 2012
The journey to Smilow was through its most familiar route. Cancer. After 30 years as a business owner, I had just retired and was playing in a benefit golf tournament in North Carolina. Without warning and within a month, my historically healthy body was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer with mets to my liver.
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Tracy Ridgway
Cyclist, Closer to Free Bike Ride 2012
Tracy Ridgway is a Dispatcher and Scale Operator at Closer to Free Ride Platinum Sponsor All American Waste. On June 30, 2011, Tracy’s wife called him at work. She was frantic and told him to meet her at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He arrived to learn the shocking news: Their 11-year-old daughter Casey’s swollen knee had been diagnosed as bone cancer which had metastasized to her lungs.
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