Motivated by loss of his grandfather, Glastonbury man to be part of coast-to-coast bike ride for V Foundation for Cancer Research
Bruce Sill still remembers what his grandfather went through while battling lung cancer, even though Sill was in college at the time, in the late 80s.
“He was a big influence on me, someone who was a great role model,” Sill said. “He was a product of his time; he was a smoker and developed lung cancer. It was really hard to watch him go through the disease process, what it did to his body and what the treatment did to him as well.”
Last fall, Sill’s younger brother was diagnosed with cancer. Sill has seen what cancer has done to colleagues and friends.
So when he heard about the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer fundraising bike ride sponsored by his company, Bristol Myers Squibb, he decided that he would do it, even though he was a casual cyclist.
On Sept. 19-21, Sill, 53, of Glastonbury will ride between 225-250 miles, about 80 miles a day, between Denver, Colo. and Topeka, Kansas as part of the cross country trek.
The ride, which benefits the V Foundation for Cancer Research, will start Sept. 7 at Cannon Beach in Oregon and end Oct. 3 in Long Branch, N.J. There will be 126 Bristol Myers Squibb employees participating; Sill will ride his segments with a team of six others.
Sill is a pharmacist who leads a team of researchers at the company. He wrestled and played football at Derby High School, but he hasn’t been on a bike this much since his childhood.
Since he started training for the ride in April, he’s logged over 1,000 miles.
The loss of his grandfather Frank Tereskiewicz, who is memorialized on the back of Sill’s bike shirt as “Pop,” motivated him.
“His loss certainly left a hole in the family,” Sill said. “Then at the end of the 2021, doctors found a tumor in my younger brother and as you can imagine, life kind of stopped for him and his family. Luckily, after going through procedures, treatments and scans, he’s in a good place now.
“There’s always that kind of thing in the back of your mind that something is going to happen.”
Sill had to get a road bike and all the equipment and learn how to clip into his pedals with bike shoes.
“There is a training program; they don’t just send us out there,” he said. “It’s pretty regimented. We started in April, we had safety clinics where we learn how to ride the bike and maneuver, how to ride in a line, rules of the road, signaling, all the ins and outs of nutrition, hydration.
“My first safety clinic, it was my first time clipped in and out. There were a few falls. We actually practiced falling out in the grass. Even after that when I wasn’t supposed to be falling, I did fall a couple of times.”
Sill said he will likely stick with cycling after the ride is over.
“It’s been very rewarding in lots of ways,” he said. “Getting to know the people on my team and the other people who are participating - some are cancer survivors, others are friends and family – to get to know them better and to learn their stories.
“It’s a great cause, knowing the effect cancer has on patients and their families and knowing the funding goes to cancer research through the V Foundation is motivating and inspiring, but also when I have to do a 40-mile ride – the alarm clock goes off and I’d rather stay in bed - it’s been motivating to think about the people I’m doing this for.”
For more information about the ride, go to Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer (donordrive.com) or to donate to Sill go to: Bruce Sill - Fundraising For The V Foundation (donordrive.com).
Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
