AMHERST — The first time Judith Souweine rode in the Pan-Mass Challenge in 2006, her husband Jonathan met her at the finish line.
Jonathan Souweine was a well-known Northampton lawyer who for years had fought for his clients. But after he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, Jonathan found himself fighting for his own life.
Jonathan received treatments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Visit after visit, Judith would accompany her husband as he underwent grueling procedures to combat the cancer — chemotherapy, radiation, even a bone-marrow transplant.
Though he would die from the disease in 2009, Souweine said the treatment Jonathan received at Dana-Farber added precious years to his life. Every visit, she would walk past advertisements for the Pan-Mass Challenge posted on the walls.
She realized it was the perfect way to give back to the institution that granted her and her husband an invaluable gift — time.
On the 10th anniversary of that first ride, Jonathan will not be there to greet her at the finish line, but he will be with her in spirit. At 68 years old, Judith Souweine will embark on her 10th annual Pan-Mass Challenge ride. She’s not the fastest rider on the route, but that doesn’t matter.
For Souweine, the ride is not a race. She is grateful to be healthy enough to ride in Jonathan’s memory.
“You get this feeling of ‘I can do this’ because it’s not as bad as cancer,” Souweine said. “This challenge is nothing compared to the challenge of living with cancer.”
Souweine will not be alone at the finish line this year. Sixteen friends and family members are traveling from as far as California and Montreal to join her on her the ride Aug. 6 and 7. The name of her team, “Pook’s Pedalers,” was inspired by her nickname for the no-nonsense lawyer who always put his family first.
“Jonathan was not the kind of person who would want something named for him. This is a way to keep his name in our lives and never forget him. He is alive in a different way,” Souweine said in an interview last week.
Pook’s Pedalers will start their ride in two locations on Aug. 6: Sturbridge and Wellesley. They will meet at a lunch stop in Rehoboth and pedal the rest of the ride together over the Bourne Bridge and across Cape Cod. By the time the ride is over, Souweine will have logged 160 miles on her bike from Wellesley to Provincetown. Those who start in Sturbridge will pedal 190 miles.
The Pan-Mass Challenge is a two-day bike-a-thon that generates millions of dollars for cancer care and research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. The charity has raised half a billion dollars since it was founded by Executive Director Billy Starr in 1980.
In 2015, the ride raised $45 million through more than 250,000 individual contributions. The organization seeks to exceed that amount, setting a fundraising goal of $46 million for this year. Over the last 10 years, Pook’s Pedalers has raised more than $300,000.
Twin brothers Daniel and Isaac Souweine, 37, will return to Massachusetts to celebrate their mother and honor their father at the Pan-Mass Challenge. They have both done the fundraiser at separate times, but this year’s ride will be their first as a family.
Daniel, 37, lives in Berkeley, California. He works in politics and recently campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Daniel rode for Pook’s Pedalers in 2012, and said he is excited to get back in the saddle.
“It’s a truly worthy cause that I can vouch for. I’m riding to honor the memory of my father … He loved to bike and he loved to be outdoors,” Daniel said.
“He was this unusual combination of being very clear about what he believed in and not afraid to piss people off sometimes,” he said, “But he was also incredibly caring and put his family first.”
Daniel said his family was fortunate they could provide his father with quality care during his battle with leukemia. By raising money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Daniel said he hopes to extend those resources to others in need. Jonathan was a “say what you think, believe what you say” kind of guy, according to his son.
My father “cared about equality and that everybody was treated right,” Daniel said. “He was this combination of tough on the outside and one of the most caring people I’ve ever met on the inside.”
Daniel said he is not surprised his mother has continued riding for 10 years. The physical feat is a testament to her strength, he said.
“She has unbelievable determination. It’s an inspiration to me,” Daniel said. “When my mom was (my father’s) primary caregiver, she was never going to let him lag in energy. She was so strong … she did everything she could to keep his spirits up.”
Souweine said she feels grateful that she is still healthy enough to ride the 160-mile route. Seeing the familiar physicians who treated Jonathan and meeting people whose lives have been touched by cancer motivates her to return to the route year after year.
Souweine is a rare breed. Of the more than 6,000 riders in the Pan-Mass Challenge, only 29 are women over the age of 67, according to a Pan-Mass Challenge spokeswoman. Souweine’s teammate Susan Zarchin, 67, is another one of those women.
Zarchin, of Amherst, lost her sister Jill to cancer in November 2015. She said training for this year’s ride has been a challenge. She did not know why she felt so tired at first, but eventually realized it was grief, she explained.
“I don’t know how I’ll feel riding this year,” Zarchin said. “But as you’re standing there at the starting line in a sea of jerseys, you get this feeling of being held, because there are a lot of people who know. Everybody knows, everybody understands. Whether you feel sadness or loss you are totally supported. It is cathartic in the best way.”
Riders have to learn to bike while crying, Zarchin and Souweine agreed.
Zarchin’s children, Leah and Noah Danoff, will join her in honor of their late aunt and also of their father, who died from pancreatic cancer. Noah Danoff, 38, is a longtime childhood friend of Daniel and Isaac Souweine. The ride will be a reunion for the children, now adults. Souweine said she is looking forward to riding with the boys because they can always make her laugh.
“We had this strangely and sadly parallel experience where we lost our fathers,” Daniel explained. “But it’s great to be able to share this ride.”
Sallie Deans Lake, 64, of Northampton, trains several times a week with Souweine and Zarchin. The women often meet at a bench in Hadley and bike across the region, sometimes pedaling as far as Leverett and Greenfield. Lake is a breast cancer survivor and longtime friend of Judith and Jonathan. This will be her eighth year riding with Pook’s Pedalers.
“I’ve always felt incredibly committed to this ride and this team because of my love for Judith,” Lake said by telephone. “It is an incredible experience to do this ride … It is exhausting and exhilarating.”
Other members of Pook’s Pedalers include Leonora Wiener, Jane Souweine, Ted and Robin Diamond, Alan Sharpe, Devorah Jacobson, Ken Talan and Jacob Lindeman, according to Souweine.
Kristina Curro, another Amherst resident, is training to ride 190 miles from Sturbridge to Provincetown in the Pan-Mass Challenge as part of another team. In an email, Curro said she is riding in honor of family and friends who have battled cancer. She said the ride gives her “great hope” that she can help in the fight against cancer by supporting Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Stephanie Murray can be reached at stephaniemur@umass.edu.