MARBLEHEAD — The Pan-Mass Challenge bike-a-thon provides a community for cancer patients and survivors across Massachusetts and raises money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through donations raised by its participants, one of whom is Marblehead’s Angus McQuilken. 

McQuilken is heading into his eighteenth year participating in the bike-a-thon and continues to feel immense gratitude for what this community has done for him.

 He began participating after his own colon cancer diagnosis in 2008 when he was 36 and underwent surgery at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2009. 

“I started riding the Pan-Mass Challenge one year after my surgery in 2009,” McQuilken said. “A friend of mine who had ridden for many years recommended it as a way that I could give back to Dana-Farber.” 

McQuilken was lucky enough to have caught it early, as it is one of the hardest cancers to catch in the early stages. Colon cancer is often a silent killer, and McQuilken is grateful every day for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

“The first year my goal was just to finish and to raise the amount of money I had signed up to raise. And I did that. And it felt like an important moment in my life,” McQuilken said. “The second year in 2010 was really emotional for me. I felt like I had gotten past this. I was a survivor of cancer, not a patient.” 

Most teams that participate are through corporations that help fund the life-saving care provided by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; however, McQuilken’s Team Kermit is the largest non-corporately funded team that participates. 

Team Kermit was created as a way to preserve the memory of Stephan Branfman’s son, Jared, who died in September 2005 of a Glioblastoma; a fast-growing brain tumor that has a 40% mortality rate. 

Jared loved Kermit and had taken on the mantra from his favorite childhood character, “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” during his battle with cancer. The team wears Kermit dolls attached to their helmets to keep his memory alive. 

“I never knew Jared. I joined the team years after it had been formed,” McQuilken said. “But we all understand the history and share the mission.” 

Stephen Branfman has led Team Kermit since 2004, before his son died, and has raised $2.6 million for the Jared Branfman Sunflowers For Life Fund for Pediatric Brain and Spinal Cancer Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, established in 2006. 

McQuilken describes Team Kermit as a family and a “team that really works as a team.” 

A team barbecue is held along with team training sessions to prepare each year. Even as members come and go, McQuilken says the team never loses its family-like atmosphere. 

McQuilken began a new tradition with PMC founder Billy Starr over a decade ago called The Living Proof Champagne Toast. The toast occurs after the first day of the bike-a-thon at the Mass Maritime Academy to celebrate all those who survived cancer or are currently facing a diagnosis. The name is derived from PMC’s own mantra for those who have undergone treatment and survived. 

“The Pan Mass Challenge calls riders who have survived cancer or are being treated for cancer, living proof. I’m part of the living proof contingent,” McQuilken said. “It’s a good deal. If you get cancer, you ride in the Pan-Mass Challenge, and you get a free t-shirt.” 

For McQuilken, this year’s PMC feels particularly poignant after the recent cuts to cancer research. Through Team Kermit, a family’s love for their son gets to live on and help those in need in tandem. 

 McQuilken holds this very close to his heart and has himself recruited a few new faces onto the team. He has made a goal of a $12,000 donation to Dana-Farber and the Jimmy Fund.

 Team Kermit has their own donation fund as well, where all donations are used for the Jared Branfman Sunflowers For Life Fund.