During my freshman year of high school, I went to China to visit my grandfather. He was dying of stomach cancer, which had already spread to his bone marrow and blood. When we got there, I had barely recognized him. I couldn't believe that this was the person that biked me to school every day and laid a brick path in our backyard only a few years ago.

After stopping at home to say hello, we went to the hospital where he was being treated to pick up nutritional formula and medications. My mother put 30,000 Chinese yuan, in cash, on the table. She explained to me that in China, you pay before you are treated -- and you don't get treatment if you can't pay.

A few days later, my grandfather decided that he had enough. He refused to let us give him any more of the nutritional formula that kept him alive, and threatened to remove his feeding tube if we tried to give him the formula behind his back. I was whisked away by my aunt the next morning. We went to the hospital where she worked as a head nurse and I spent a night in the nurses' quarters before my uncle came and picked me up the next morning. Later I would find out my aunt was getting morphine to my grandfather, which is a tightly controlled substance in China. His passing would have been much more painful if not for her. A few days later, we got the news that my grandfather had passed away.

That was my first personal experience with cancer. It wasn't until college that I really thought about what happened. The thing that hit me hardest were the financial burden of treatment and the mental health consequences that people have to deal with when they are diagnosed. I realized that most people in the world wouldn't have been able to cough up the amount of cash we laid on the table in order to pay for his medical supplies. And although this happened in China, this situation happens here in the US as well. There are plenty out there who don't have the insurance and only see the doctor when they have to, missing critical appointments and preventative care that could have caught their cancers earlier. Even if they do notice it, cancer patients are far more likely to go bankrupt than the average person in the US. Nobody should ever have to choose between feeding their family or staying healthy. I ride to raise awareness about this issue of the affordability of care.

I also realized how much of a role mental health plays in cancer patients. To this day, I don't like saying my grandfather died of cancer. I feel as though it distorts the truth as to what happened. My grandfather died by suicide, in which cancer played a large role. I think about what I could have done in order to help him -- make him feel as though he wasn't just a burden to the rest of the family, give him some sort of peace, anything that could've taken a bit of his pain away. This is why making personal connections with the cancer community is so important for me. Even though I may not personally know everyone T4K rides for, I want them all to know that I am here for them.

I'm so excited to begin this journey with Texas 4000. I can't wait to get to know the T4K community, staff, my teammates, and countless others who have been affected by cancer. Please feel free to reach out at palmerlynnj@utexas.edu to share your story.

To Alaska and Back,

Lynn Palmer

Riding for:

Jin Fu Tai

Julie Palmer Hollas

Lynn Dunbar Palmer

Jerrod Arcisz

Elfriede Scheurich

Mary Lou Ramsey

Jim Ramsey

Nicky Cumberland

Helen Gao - 高红

Hieu Phung

Tina Ijam

Gary Phillips

Sarah Phillips

Mohammad Naseemullah

De Sharp

Kelly Dilodovico