Arlington Resident Excited For Mother-Daughter Pan-Mass Challenge

ARLINGTON, MA — Arlington resident Emily Carol admits she got a little nervous in the weeks leading up to her 80-mile ride in her first Pan-Mass Challenge. Yet, with this weekend's event now just days away, that nervousness has been replaced with excitement about the journey she is about to embark on, and the person with whom she will embark on it.

"I have been doing a little training to keep my legs under me so I don't fall off," she said. "But then I keep thinking that if my mother can do it, then I can do it. She is a big inspiration for me."

Carol's mother, Mary-Ellen Taplin, was her inspiration when her father died of a brain tumor when Carol was 15 years old. Her mother's work in Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was an inspiration for Carol as she earned her own doctorate degree on her way to becoming a postdoctoral fellow at McLean Hospital in Belmont. Her mother's fight was an inspiration as Carol watched her battle breast cancer and become a cancer survivor at Dana-Farber.

Taplin rode her first PMC from Wellesley to Bourne last year while Carol was living in Colorado. Now that she is back in Massachusetts, she looking forward to them riding the event together. As of Tuesday, Carol was within $1,500 of reaching her $6,500 fundraising goal.

"Dana-Farber became a very special place to me growing up with my father being treated there and my mother working there," said Carol, who grew up in Northborough. "I know where all the money goes and the type of research it helps fund. So there is a lot of synergy there with me riding it for the first time."

Carol and Taplin are riding with Team Imagine, which Taplin created with cancer survivors, family members of patients and Dana-Farber staff members who want to "imagine a world without cancer."

"I know all the other riders are deeply passionate about the reasons they are riding," she said. "I am so very grateful to every person involved in the Pan-Mass Challenge. It's been amazing to learn how many individuals are involved in it and what an incredible community they make up."