Closer to Free Ride

NBC Connecticut’s Kyle Jones looks back at the powerful and emotional stories of some of the people participating in the Closer to Free Ride in New Haven on Saturday.

Mark Donovan and his wife Pieta have been side-by-side on Pieta’s yearlong journey through cancer, and he says being by her side isn’t the challenge.  “The harder part is you can’t really influence what the outcome is going to be, so you feel powerless.” Pieta has stage four colorectal cancer, a diagnosis that came as a surprise. She had...

Mark Donovan and his wife Pieta have been side-by-side on Pieta’s year-long journey through cancer. She has stage 4 colorectal cancer. This will be Mark’s first Closer to Free Ride in his wife’s honor.

Surrounded in a room filled with hockey memories, it’s easy to see the bond Nate Ponzio and his dad Paul share over the game.

“We met as residents, we got married at the end of residency,” said Ismene Petrakis, reflecting on life with her husband Michael Sernyak. The pair met on the tenth floor of Yale New Haven Hospital, and the Yale-trained psychiatrists started a family and launched their careers. Sernyak became CEO of the Connecticut Mental Health Center near the hospital and Petrakis…

They met as residents in the psychiatry department at Yale New Haven Hospital. A lifetime later, they returned to Smillow Cancer Hospital – not to learn or teach, but for treatment. Ismene Petrakis and his wife learned of his cancer diagnosis two years ago.

A decade after battling cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, Jessica Simoes is now a nurse in the same unit. And in September, the patient-turned-nurse is set to ride 25 miles for Closer to Free.

The Closer to Free Ride can be a meaningful experience for a lot of people. “I don’t share my story with everybody but there’s definitely been a lot of patients I do share it with,” said Jessica Simoes. It’s a story that Simoes says has helped her patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital. The hematology oncology nurse was a patient...

“My maternal grandfather had pancreatic cancer. his brother also had pancreatic cancer and my mom had uterine cancer and brain cancer.” Those are the risk factors that drove Graig Diamond to get tested for BRCA and Lynch Syndrome. After getting positive results, he entered the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Program at Yale Medicine.  “If something does happen, I want...

Morgan Hushion and Jacqueline, or Jac, have been together at Yale New Haven Health’s Bridgeport Hospital for eight years. The pair work together as the two full-time speech pathologists on staff. There are three others that are part-time.

“I think of her very much as a mentor,” Morgan Hushion said of her coworker Jacqueline. “She really helped me over the years develop my practice in critical thinking. She is very much like my right hand at work.” Hushion and Jacqueline, or Jac, have been together at Yale New Haven Health’s Bridgeport Hospital for eight years. The pair...

From a blind date to stops at Smilow Cancer Hospital, the Kleins share their story as they prepare for this year’s ride.

“He would eat it every meal of the day if he could.” Lobsters were the favorite food of Katharine Mix’s big cousin Andy. The two were only children who grew up like brother and sister. “I spent my whole life trying to keep up with him, be it skiing, running around. He was just a larger-than-life person and personality,”...

The 14th Closer to Free Ride is just under three months away. The ride draws thousands to New Haven to support cancer treatment and research.

We are getting closer to an event near and dear to NBC Connecticut. The 14th Closer to Free Ride is just under three months away. The ride draws thousands to New Haven to support cancer treatment and research. “The ride itself is a fundraiser monetarily, and I say it’s an emotional fundraiser to ride it. It helps rebuild you...

The 14th annual Closer to Free ride in New Haven is just under three months away and a sponsor of the event is sharing his personal connection to the ride.

A preschool in Cheshire played host for this unique and fun effort to raise money for Smilow Cancer Hospital.

The 2023 event begins Saturday morning at the Yale Bowl.