My name is Brian Burke. I have been married to the most wonderful woman on the planet, Carol, for the last 25 years and together we have been blessed with two beautiful daughters Alana and Shannon. I have always enjoyed riding my bike. As a small boy I rode my bike everywhere. It was my ticket to freedom. Enjoying the ride from grade school through college. After graduating from college I stopped riding my bike. I began to focus on open water endurance swimming and it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with cancer that I began to look to the bike again. After both my mother and father were diagnosed with cancer I was the third person in a family of six to be touched by the disease. I have to say I was angry. I was supposed to be a healthy athlete. I had swum the English Chanel! I was not supposed to get cancer, especially when it had already touched two thirds of my family. At that point I tried to turn it into a positive and with my younger brother Sean, we signed up for our first Livestrong 100 mile bike ride to raise money for cancer research. Since then I have never stopped riding my bike. Unfortunately since then cancer has continued to haunt my friends. Several of my friends’ wives have been diagnosed with breast cancer and one of my closest friends has been fighting prostate cancer. If riding my bike 300 miles from Port Huron to Mackinac Island can help prevent one person from going through what my family and friends have gone through, then I will gladly ride with a smile on my face.
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