Pedaling for a cure
Team raises $660G to fight cancer
MATT SECONI pedaled as if his life depended on it.
The 30-year-old leaned back from the handlebars of his stationary bike Friday evening, brightening as a big smile spread across his face.
Every bike around him at the Equinox Bryant Park on 41st St. was occupied, the room nearly shaking with energy as music blasted and onlookers cheered the riders’ efforts to raise money for research on rare forms of cancer.
Seconi, wearing a gray T-shirt emblazoned with an orange head of hair and the words “Ginger Strong” on the front, was riding for his fiancée, Kelly Knab, who passed away in 2015.
To date, Seconi and the other members of team Ginger Strong have raised $660,000 to fund research into treatments for rare cancers as part of Cycle for Survival.
Seconi said every time he rides, the memories of Knab come racing back.
“But it’s a good thing. It’s a strong thing,” he said. “It’s a really positive way to remember somebody.”
The couple met during a ski race on a small mountain south of Syracuse in 2012.
“I kind of snuck onto the chairlift next to her,” Seconi said with a grin. “And, as we say, the rest is kind of history.”
The two moved to the Big Apple a year later. In September 2013, Knab was diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, an extremely rare form of cancer.
As she underwent treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Knab sought out a way to get involved in the cancer community.
“I’d like to think that Kelly had an awesome support group between her family, myself, my family, all of her friends. We had so many people that rallied behind us,” Seconi said. “But at the same time I thought it would be really good if she got involved in a community where she might meet people in a similar situation.”
The couple flew to San Francisco and participated in their first Cycle for Survival event in 2014.
They came up with the name Team Ginger Strong together, said Seconi.
“Kelly was a redhead and so it just kind of seemed like something that fit. It felt good at the time,” he said.
Knab befriended others fighting against rare cancers at the fund-raiser and the two took part in another ride in Times Square months later.
That first year they raised $15,000. The next, they pulled in a stunning $150,000.
Seconi and Knab were engaged in December 2014, but they never had the chance to exchange vows.
Knab passed away 2015. She was 28.
“It was amazing how many people rallied around Kelly’s story. And if you meet anybody else who talks about her it’s just a testament to the kind of individual she was,” Seconi said. “People say she really lit up a room. She really did. She always made you feel awesome.”
Five weeks after he lost his fiancée, Seconi was back on a stationary bike, pedaling away.
“That was tough. I got up and talked,” he said. “It’s such a powerful Jan. 2, experience. In a way, in particular with something that’s fresh, it kind of continues to keep somebody alive.”
Team Ginger Strong growing and raising money.
“I just saw all these people who took this story and kind of ran with it. It was incredible. It was something I knew I had to continue to do,” said Seconi.
Seconi has participated in 17 rides since Knab passed, at events across the country, raising an astonishing $660,000.
Since 2007, Cycle for Survival has raised more than $135 million, with all of the money going toward rare cancer research led kept by Memorial Sloan Cancer Center.
Events like the one at the Midtown Equinox are held across the country on a regular basis and draw thousands of participants.
Seconi said the group’s goals of finding treatment for rare forms of cancer and the sense of community he feels at the events keep him coming back.
“Treating rare forms of cancer isn’t easy and sometimes there are no treatments,” he said.
“Our goal is to continue to spread the word and bring people in,” he continued. “Just continue to try and make an impact.” Kettering