Inspiration Drives Four Sharon Residents at PMC

Sharon resident Laura Davis recalls sitting in a board meeting with Lenny Zakim, on his birthday.

She remembers Zakim “talking from the heart of losing control, which is the most devastating part of cancer, and Lenny articulating just how complementary therapy allowed him to gain some control back, gave him some piece.”

“When you’re with Lenny, you think you can do anything,” Davis says.

“He was just such an inspiration to tackle anything, particularly in a grassroots mode.”

Over the weekend, Davis and fellow Sharon residents Ed Hershfield, Rich Goldman and Jerry Anderson rode their bicycles in Zakim’s memory to support cancer research.

They were members of Team Lenny in the .

Held Saturday and Sunday, the event involved 5,500 cyclists trying to raise $36 million total to support adult and pediatric cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. Overall, 47 Sharon residents planned to ride.

The members of Team Lenny rode for the Leonard P. Zakim Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute through the PMC and Jimmy Fund.

Team Lenny began with “maybe about a dozen of us,” Davis says.

In recent years, “with some significant fundraisers,” grassroots work has grown the group to “a couple of handfuls,” she says.

U.S. Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown both support the PMC,  Davis says.

Brown was scheduled to ride with the team this weekend.

“I know he’s an incredibly compassionate human being,” Davis says.

“To me, it means the world to have another quality person supporting. I was just honored that he said yes.”