LAKEVILLE — Cyclists riding to raise funds for cancer research made a pit stop in Lakeville to rest and meet the patients they aim to help during the Pan-Mass Challenge on Saturday, Aug. 2.

This year, more than 6,500 cyclists rode in the Pan-Mass Challenge, a two-day bike-a-thon dedicated to raising funds for cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. On the first day, cancer patients and their families cheered on riders as they passed through the checkpoint at Apponequet Regional High School.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a Boston-based institution that specializes in cancer research and treatment for children and adults. The annual Pan-Mass Challenge raises funds through rider-raised sponsorships and donations with a goal of $76 million this year.

Camila Hernandez, a Milton resident, said her son Leandro “Seba” Hernandez, 2, was treated for leukemia at the institute when he was two months old.

“When you see all these people who are riding for Dana-Farber, you can't explain the feeling, especially when I'm looking at him and he's running around and just — we wouldn't have had him here if it wasn't for the research that's being done,” said Hernandez.

Now, she said Seba is completely cleared from the leukemia in his body, and goes to the institute only for monthly checkups.

“It's like an out of body experience looking at him and saying he almost didn't make it if it wasn't for the research and the cancer treatment,” Hernandez added.

Last year, the Pan-Mass Challenge reached over $1 billion in donations to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. According to their website, the challenge is the cancer institute's single largest supporter and makes up 66% of the annual fundraising revenue.

“We had the billion, and now we're on to the second billion,” said Meredith Starr, the challenge’s director of stewardship and liaison to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “Unfortunately cancer never stops, so we keep going — now more than ever.”

The institute is responsible for more than 60% of the current cancer therapies that are available to patients, Starr said.

With federal funding from the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute under threat, she said riders are more motivated than ever. If Congress passes the Trump Administration’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, the National Cancer Institute would receive a $2.7 billion cut, while proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health total $18 billion, according to each respective institute.

“Philanthropy makes up that difference. Our money is really needed to continue clinical trials and take care of patients who are already in trials, as well as new developments and cures for cancer,” Starr said.

Starr’s husband, Billy Starr, founded the Pan-Mass Challenge in 1980.

Claire Storck, who was at the high school with her daughter, Matilda “Tilly” Danoff, 6, has attended the Pan-Mass Challenge meet and greet before, and said it’s always an emotional day.

“Some of these kids are alive because of the advances in treatment that Dana-Farber has been able to do raising all this money,” Storck said. “It's really moving. Cancer touches a lot of us.”

Storck’s daughter, Matilda, was diagnosed with a low-grade tumor in her spinal cord in 2021 when she was two years old. She underwent 70 weeks of chemotherapy, Storck said, and the tumor is inoperable, but now stable.

Like many involved in the Pan-Mass Challenge, the donations raised through Tilly’s riders are going to a research fund the family started in her name. The research, conducted by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, specializes in the rare form of cancer that Tilly has been treated for. Storck said over $1 million has been raised for Tilly’s fund over the last few years.

This year was the sixth Pan-Mass Challenge Stephanie Vail, a challenge volunteer and rider, has ridden in. She and her husband started riding when her son Declan Vail, 9, was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age three.

Vail works as an oncology nurse at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and said she sees the impact of the challenge in both the patients she sees and in her own family. She said the support doesn’t stop at the funding for cancer research — the challenge creates a strong sense of community between riders, patients and families.

“There was no way that I was going to be away from this community. It just reels you in and you're never going to leave,” said Vail. “I knew immediately that the support, love and hope that this provides our family — it just really refuels us.”