For Bill Snapper, PMC Ride Becomes Personal

Most Pan Mass Challenge participants are taking part in two-day, 192-mile ride because they know someone who has been afflicted with cancer. Although now taking part in his 29th ride, Holliston’s Bill Snapper didn’t begin his Pan Mass journey with anyone close to him having the deadly disease.
“Honestly, it started out as a bar bet. A group of co-workers had got together after work and were talking about the PMC (having taken part in it for the first time a year earlier),” Snapper said. “My friend and I looked at each other and said yeah, we can do that.”
And so, in 1989, the journey began. Despite only riding on a bike no more than 20-miles at one time and improving to 40 over his training, Snapper took off with his friend on a trek 5 times longer than he ever rode a bike. To make matters worse, during his initial leg of the ride it rained the entire day.
“It was tough and painful at first, and my friend wore glasses, so I was basically his eyes that first day,” the Holliston resident said. “But we soon discovered what this ride was all about. It’s something that you either get or you don’t.”
Prior to getting on his bike for the two-day challenge that was ahead of him that August weekend Snapper really knew nothing about the ride except that it was a charity event for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, but by the time it was over he was a lot more educated.
“We said that we were going to do it and we did. You get caught up in the event and the people throughout the course – that weekend was infectious,” Snapper said. “The entire attitude and atmosphere – it was hard to believe that I was just a small part of this huge event. I got it and bonded with the ride.”
That first year, Snapper pulled in a modest $700 in donations to be able to ride in the PMC; this year he’ll be able to send close to $18,000 to Dana Farber in hope of finding a cure for cancer. Through his 29 years riding the course Snapper has been able to secure $257,000 worth of donations.
Although Snapper began the ride on a bet, it was like he was meant to take part in the PMC as he later lost an uncle to lung cancer and then both his parents (one in 2014 and the other a year later). And one year ago, his sister-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. He also had a good friend, who was a doctor, that had cancer, leaving him flabbergasted.
“She’s someone who is supposed to be helping people with this – not getting it,” he said.
In addition to his loved ones that passed away from cancer – Snapper himself was diagnosed in 2012 and reality of the disease soon consumed him.
“I realized that adults were getting and battling cancer, but it was pretty ugly when I learned about all the children who were getting it as well,” Snapper said. “It’s bad enough for adults to be going through this, but it shouldn’t be happening to children.”
In the beginning, Snapper had rode the race with his own team, but little by little, people either lost interest in the ride or found it difficult to fundraise the money and stopped taking part in the ride. Snapper now rides with a group of bikers out of Franklin called Phat Tuesday, a group he got involved in by meeting up with one of the riders on his way home from work.
“I was riding my bike home from work in Marlboro one day when at as stop light I noticed a rider (Tim Brightman from Franklin) with a PMC shirt on,” he said. “We started talking, and I eventually joined his team; I’ve been riding with them now for 10 years.”
The PMC weekend is a full-fledged event for the Snapper family every year. While Bill is pedaling toward Provincetown, his wife and two children are manning one of the water stations as some of the thousands of volunteers that keep the riding in motion.
Snapper says he will continue to ride as long as he possibly can and contributes his participation to his many loyal donors who have supported him through the years. Next year, Snapper will be taking part in his 30th ride and is already looking forward to it. Snapper is hoping to have his son, who will turn 30 after the race is completed next year, by his side as they make the 192-mile trek against cancer.