Nearly seven years ago, Massachusetts General Hospital helped to save the life of Jerry Humphrey’s wife. This month, Humphrey gave back, raising more than $5,000 for brain cancer research in a cross-country motorcycle ride for charity.
In 2014, Humphrey’s then-girlfriend began having blinding headaches and went to the doctor for some testing. Scans showed she had a glioma tumor in her brain. Gliomas are a slow-growing form of tumor.
“I had only known her for four months at that point. But I decided, I was all in. I was with her through the whole thing,” Humphrey said.
Now, five years after the completion of a surgery to remove a large portion of the tumor and radiation treatments (and after the two got married), his wife’s condition is now stable, though she goes through scans every six months to ensure what was not able to be removed has not continued to grow.
Humphrey said he wanted to find a way to give back. When he was researching a possible cross-country motorcycle trip this summer – a long-time dream – he found other riders who had turned their trips into a fundraiser for causes close to their heart. Humphrey decided he wanted to support the Massachusetts General Brain Cancer Research Center. Particularly, his fundraising will be going to support research into easing side effects from cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation.
Humphrey rode several hundred miles a day in his two-week trip, passing through beautiful farmland in Ohio and scorching desert in Arizona, and harrowing five-lane highways in California. But it wasn’t the views that were his biggest takeaway from the trip he said, but the people he met along the way, all perfect strangers, and many who did him a good turn for no reason but the goodness of their hearts. And as he explained his purpose, he said, all of them shared a story of a loved one who had battled or been lost to cancer. That, he said, is why supporting cancer research is so important.
“Is it going to cure brain cancer?” Humphrey said, of the funds he raised in his trip from Wilton to California. “No, but it may help someone. The thing is, when you’re watching someone go through this, you feel so powerless. This gave me a sense of power, that I could do something and have some sort of impact.”
Humphrey’s fundraising page has currently raised $5,300 for the Brain Cancer Research Center. Donations can still be made at https://because.massgeneral.org/fundraiser/3410431.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.