BY TJ DONEGAN

When Steve Brightman was diagnosed with cancer 22 years ago, he had a chance to get a second opinion on treatment from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which houses The Jimmy Fund clinic.

When he returned home to talk to his mother, the 36-year-old Foxboro patrolman did not focus on his own troubles, but those of the children he saw afflicted by disease.

“He said he just wished there was something he could do to help,” his brother Tim recalls now. Steve never was given that chance as he passed away later that year.

For Tim Brightman, however, the chance to help and carry on his brother’s wish was right in front of him all along.

“I wanted to do something in [Steve’s] memory, so I called around and called The Jimmy Fund and they asked if I liked to ride a bike,” Tim said in a phone interview. “They said I should call this [Pan Mass Challenge] thing.”

He would raise $3,600 for the 1988 PMC that year and 20 years later, he’s still riding and still raising money. All told, in his more than two decades of fundraising, Tim has raised over $100,000 for cancer research through the PMC.

It’s a cause that requires constant work and fundraising, so much so that Tim once stopped in the middle of a PMC one year to accept two dollars a woman was waving out of a car to donate to the event.

“People were sort of giving me a hard time about that,” Tim said. “But hey, every dollar counts.”

“I don’t feel like I’m asking them for donations, I feel like I’m offering them an opportunity to make a difference,” Tim says of his donors. “I’ve had a couple of donors for 20 years and it’s nice to know that I’m giving them that avenue to help. Every year at the PMC I give the founder a handshake and a hug because it’s giving me a way to do something in my brother’s memory.”

With 100 percent of every dollar going directly to cancer research, every dollar raised goes toward finding a cure or, at the very least, buying a little more time for cancer patients to spend with their family.
With a fundraising goal of $34 million this year alone, the PMC has bought a lot of time for patients. From the few hundred riders in his first year, to the more than 5400 riders this year, Brightman’s seen the event grow dramatically.

“It’s been phenomenal to watch the growth [of the PMC]…the whole weekend you’re riding with people who are dedicated to the same cause and the camaraderie is great.

Graveside visits

The ride also gives Tim and his family a chance to remember what they have lost. For years, he rode while carrying his brother’s Foxboro Police badge and would stop each year at his brother’s grave with his family for a quick break before continuing his ride.

As the route has moved over the years, that detour hasn’t become possible but his family still participates and, for Tim, the spirit of his riding and carrying on his brother’s wish is more important.

“My [other] brother makes the trek every year and it’s great that the two of us are following through on my brother’s desire to help,” Tim added. “My sister is riding, my wife rode eight years. It’s definitely been a family thing…It’s a way of life.”

“When I did my first PMC my son was one and he’s named after my brother,” Tim explained. “My daughter wasn’t even born. All their lives all they know is that it’s May, June and July, Dad’s on his bike…my family’s known no other way and that makes me proud too.”

With two decades, over a hundred thousand dollars and thousands of miles in the rearview over the past two decades, Tim can now reflect on what he’s accomplished in his brother’s memory.

“I think [Steve] would be very proud of me,” Tim said. “Everybody just tells me how proud he would be of me to have carried on his wish.”

With his 21st ride coming up this weekend and plenty of battles against cancer left to fight, he will just have to carry it a little bit longer.