Arizona Republic Story

Here's the story that ran in the Arizona Republic. Bob Young did a great job of telling the story. Thank you Bob!


http://www.azcentral.com:80/sports/azetc/articles/1221seasonforsharing-cycle1222.html


Ride raises cancer awareness
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 21, 2007

Brad Wingate first spotted Susan DeFrank as he pedaled his bike on a training ride around a lake in Carbondale, Ill.

She happened to be running around the lake near Southern Illinois University. He had no idea he had just seen the woman he would come to know as, "my best friend, the love of my life."

When a mutual friend introduced the pair, Wingate immediately recognized the petite runner. "Hey, you run by the lake!" he said.

They were both involved in other relationships at the time, but they learned that they shared a love for the outdoors and for running, riding and hiking. They became fast friends.

When Susan took a job in a program to help students with learning disabilities at Arizona State, she called Brad to tell him she was planning to attempt her first "century" bike ride, the 109-mile El Tour De Tucson.

A Category 2 (translation: really fast) racer in USA Cycling's amateur ranks, Wingate had done a lot of 100-milers and agreed to come join her on the ride.

A romance sparked, and he soon moved to Tempe to work for REI, where he still is a supervisor 18 years later. The relationship grew and Wingate married his best friend, the love of his life.

However, in July 2001, just six months after undergoing a routine ultrasound examination, Susan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

"I can't emphasize this enough," Wingate said. "The symptoms are so subtle. She was an athlete. She was a runner and a cyclist, and when you're active like that and you get a little back pain, you think you just tweaked something. She had the classic symptoms, but they were subtle."

Susan underwent surgery, but it was too late for surgeons to get all of the cancer. Thus, the couple began a 3 1/2-year battle. Susan's 5-foot-3 body had dropped from 120 pounds to less than 100 before she even began chemotherapy treatments.

"You go through fear and hope and despair," Wingate said. "And you just try to do your best to stay in front of it."

Being a cyclist, he figured a coping mechanism must have two wheels on it.

"I told her in the hospital, 'We need a tandem (bike),' " he said. "It was a situation where I was going to try anything to help her, and if I had to do all the pedaling so she could keep going out on the bike, then that's what we would do.

"I ordered a Cannondale tandem that day, and it ended up being awesome. We were able to share that for the next three years together."

Ultimately, though, Susan lost her fight, and Wingate lost his best friend, the love of his life, on Jan. 31, 2005.

During his 12 years of competition, Wingate often thought that his personality was better suited to long-distance riding - touring - than to racing.

"There is a lot of time to think," he said. "There are not too many times in life you get that. You're always too busy."

On long rides, he thought mostly about Susan and trying to inform others about the insidious, silent nature of ovarian cancer.

"I didn't know yet what it was going to be, but I knew I just needed to do something," he said. "I ride bikes. It seemed like that was the way to go about it. I wanted to make people aware of the symptoms and how subtle they can be. "

In July, Wingate was planning to ride the "Triple Bypass" in Colorado that takes riders over three major mountain passes. He decided that he might as well just keep on going to his hometown of Hannibal, Mo., and pass the word about ovarian cancer along the way.

He ran the idea by Bob Lewis of Mesa, his longtime cycling buddy and a fellow member of the Banner Children's Hospital Cycling Club.

They dubbed their adventure "CycleQuest," loaded up their touring bikes, put a sign on the back of Wingate's bike to let people know he was riding for ovarian-cancer awareness, and off they went from near Vail, Colo. en route to the Mississippi River.

At times, Wingate said, the journey was exhilarating. At others, it was excruciating, like the time they battled brutal headwinds and relentless July heat while running low on water.

At one stop, Wingate was suffering from dehydration and heat illness and just wanted to sip on a soda pop at a small diner.

Meanwhile, Lewis was tucking into the biggest, greasiest cheeseburger Wingate had ever laid eyes upon.

"I had to turn away," he said.

On they went, with an exhausted Wingate drafting behind the burger-charged Lewis.

"I just rode that cheeseburger," Wingate said, laughing.

In all, they covered 930 miles in 10 days, camping along the way in their one-man tents and light sleeping bags.

And everywhere they stopped, people wanted to know what they were doing and why.

It was just what Wingate had hoped for, and he told them about Susan and explained the symptoms. He would refer them for more information to his blog cyclequest.blogspot.com, which he was updating daily during the ride through his brother, John.

When people offered money, he asked them to donate to the University of Arizona Cancer Center, where the Bobbi Olson Endowment Fund has helped fund research on cancers that attack women.

The fund is named for the first wife of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson. Bobbi Olson was an ovarian cancer victim, too.

Ultimately, Wingate hopes that he can plan and pull off a coast-to-coast ride to keep spreading the word.


Ovarian cancer symptoms

The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 22,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. More than 15,000 women will die of the disease in 2007. Symptoms are subtle. Watch for:

• Pelvic or abdominal pain or discomfort.

• Vague but persistent gastrointestinal upsets such as gas, nausea and indigestion.

• Frequency and/or urgency of urination in the absence of an infection.

• Unexplained weight gain or weight loss.

• Pelvic and/or abdominal swelling, bloating and/or feeling of fullness.

• Ongoing unusual fatigue.

• Unexplained changes in bowel habits.

If symptoms persist for more than two weeks, ask your doctor for a combination pelvic/rectal exam, CA-125 blood test and transvaginal ultrasound. A Pap test will not detect ovarian cancer.