Tom Lonzi was one of the first in 1996 to support the Ride for Roswell, an annual bike ride to raise money for cancer research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Tom supported the Ride because of his love of bikes.

The owner of a Lancaster bike shop offered his skills as a mechanic and sold bikes to several Roswell Park physicians, including Dr. William Kraybill, who specializes in the treatment of melanoma.  Just a few short weeks after that transaction, Tom became one of Dr. Kraybill's patients.

"My wife Valerie is the only reason I went to the doctor," says Tom. "There was this mole in the middle of my back. If it hadn't been for her, I would have never known it was there. She made the appointment because I kept putting it off. When the biopsy came back as cancer, it was a complete shock."

Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, claims approximately 7,900 lives each year. If the tumor penetrates the lower layers of the skin that contain blood and lymph vessels, the risk that the cancer will spread to other parts of the body increases. Melanoma can spread to virtually any organ and tissue.

Dr. Kraybill removed the cancerous lesion and used a technique called sentinel lymph node biopsy to determine if the cancer had  spread. Sentinel nodes are the area to which cancer is most likely to spread first. With sentinel node biopsy, only one or a few lymph nodes are removed for testing, in contrast to the standard practice of removing a much larger number of lymph nodes. Using this technique, Dr. Kraybill determined that Tom's cancer was found early and had not spread.

"Life seems to have come full circle. I have loved bikes all my life, and that connection seems to have saved my life," he says.

Tom's message of hope for the holidays: "If you are outside anytime, any season, take the proper precautions, cover up and use sunscreen. And don't do what I did. Don't wait to get checked out. Don't be afraid to see your doctor. Most types of cancer, if found early, can be cured."