cancer free

“Smilow, cycling, this whole process is keeping me alive.” With every push of the pedal, every bike ride, Lou Gaedt of Montville is doing his best to stay strong. He’s training for the Closer to Free Ride on September 11, while battling advanced prostate cancer. He was first diagnosed in 2018, and the treatments reduce his muscle mass. Exercising helps…

A prostate cancer patient says the Closer to Free Ride is literally keeping him alive, strong and fighting.

Beth Keegan and Rob Coogan have been together a lifetime. “I’m going to be 55 in October, so 54 and 10 months, something like that,” said Coogan. “Yeah, he was number four and I was number three,” said Beth.  Her last name changed slightly, and that’s the only difference between this brother and sister pair. They are the two youngest…

If you ask Lisa Selmquist if she’s a cyclist, the answer is an emphatic “no.” “Not at all. And I will never admit that I am one. I’m a want-to-be cyclist,” Selmquist said. But, the aspiring rider from Hamden is making a real-life impact. She is “Team Pedaling for Pop Pop,” a one-woman powerhouse raising money in this year’s...

The Yale Bowl was quiet last year for the opening ceremonies of the Closer to Free Ride. This year, that all changes. The event is returning in-person and the opening is what people say is one of the most cherished parts of the ride. “The experience of the opening ceremony and hearing the stories of so many survivors, it’s...

After being virtual last year due to the pandemic, the Closer to Free Ride will be in-person this year.

“As soon as I walked out you could see massive crowds forming, and there were all sorts of people there: patients, doctors nurses, caregivers,” said Leigh Funderburk. The Southbury mom was at Smilow Cancer Hospital, and it was in that moment as she watched the Smilow Salute that she was sold on the Closer to Free Ride. “As soon as…

“In December of 2019 at the age of 37 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.” Katie Cardoso says she was surprised to be diagnosed with cancer at an early age. She went right to Smilow Cancer Hospital to begin treatment two months before the COVID-19 pandemic it. “I’m so grateful that my doctors never changed the course of my treatment,”…

“I work at Smilow and literally this is my ride,” said Swani Schoberth-Wyckoff, proudly pointing to her Closer to Free Ride jersey. Schoberth-Wyckoff is an operating room nurse at Smilow Cancer Hospital. If you were to ask anyone at there about why the ride is important, she has a quick and sobering answer. “We are working at the Smilow OR….

Each year thousands of riders join the Closer to Free Ride to raise money for Smilow Cancer Hospital. And among those logging miles are some of the very people who help young cancer patients every day.

While thousands of volunteers, donors, and riders participate in Closer to Free because of their connection to Smilow Cancer Hospital, many just want to give back

On ride day for Closer to Free, the Melvin family from Guilford makes it a party of five, on wheels.   “It’s about resilience, it’s about defiance it’s about courage,” said Charlie Melvin. “It’s really everything that we want our family to be a part of.” Tara and Charlie, along with their identical twins Liam and Sean, and their...

: Stevie Hovey takes part in the Closer to Free Ride to honor her brother and her late father who both enlisted the help of the Smilow Cancer Hospital for treatment.

When Stevie Hovey thinks about her dad, she says he was big: in personality, family and fun. “He was a big sailor, he spent a lot of time at the yacht club, he spent a lot of time with all of us,” said Hovey. “In 2010, the 83-year-old dad and grandfather was one of the early patients at Smilow Cancer…

She was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly a decade ago and continues to give back to Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Last year was Bob Pigue’s first Closer to Free ride. “It was spectacular, nothing shy of spectacular,” said Pigue of Team Scalfani. It may have been Pigue’s first time, but it wasn’t the first for the team’s namesake, Pat Scalfani, who rode in 2018. “Pat had such an overwhelmingly positive experience with Yale New Haven and Smilow that we...

We are 10 weeks away from the Closer to Free Virtual Ride. Riders speak about the meaningful relationships they’ve developed by participating in the ride sharing a common goal of making the world cancer free

A Guilford woman is taking on this year’s Closer To Free Ride for the first time in honor of her mother

“My mom probably could have done 65 miles without even blinking, so my mom would have been like ‘try to keep up with me!’” This year, Jessica Matthias is riding in Closer to Free for the first time, in honor of her mom, Pamela. “My mom was full of life. She loved to work out, to watch me play soccer,…

One cancer survivor shares his amazing story and explains how the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Hospital made a difference in his life