07/18/2008

By HARRY JACKSON JR.  / Associated Press

Look up the definition of labor of love and you might find a photo of Ben and Bridget DuMont, a Wildwood couple who just beat breast cancer.

On June 9, Ben rode his bicycle the 225-mile length of the Katy Trail in about 16 hours (an average of nearly 14 miles per hour) through rain and mud. He did it to support breast cancer research and to honor his wife, who after 16 months has been deemed cancer-free.

"She's the real survivor," says Ben DuMont, 34. "And the reason she had such success on her treatment was because five, 10, 15 years ago, people were doing fundraising and research that helped people like Bridget today. We're just paying it forward."

Fifteen months ago, Bridget DuMont found a lump beneath her left breast while doing a self-exam. Doctors diagnosed HER2+ cancer, an aggressive form that only five years ago had a low survival rate.

The cancer came out of nowhere. Neither Bridget nor Ben smoked, they ate healthy, exercised regularly and breast cancer didn't run in her family.

Their first decision was not to be stressed. "How we reacted to the cancer would be how our children (Jack, 4, and Andrew, 2) would react," Ben DuMont said. "If we were stressed about it, they would be, too."

The next decision was how to confront the disease.

Doctors started her on chemotherapy for several weeks, then suggested options.

She rejected a lumpectomy and chose to have both breasts removed rather than be haunted by the specter of a relapse.

"I don't know if it was because I had the thought in my head and I'd prepared for it," Bridget DuMont said. The doctors said a double mastectomy "would raise my chances by a small percentage. I wanted that percentage."

She says she has no regrets, adding, "I would have regrets if it came back on the other side. At one time there was no cancer to begin with. So I'm at peace with it."

As she endured chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and the side effects, she was aware that Ben was neglecting things he loved while watching over her.

"I think sometimes that he had a harder time with this than me," she said.

He was an avid biker, an itch he got competing in a couple of local triathlons.

"I encouraged him to keep riding," she said.

Part of the decision for the ride came from their learning that Bridget's form of cancer five years ago could have had a grave outcome.

"I remember talking to a young woman, 24, who had the same cancer that I had," Bridget DuMont recalled. "I said I hadn't been able to meet anyone. And she said to me, 'That's because they're not alive.'"

DuMont said her chances were excellent because money from fundraising helped support the research that developed "targeted therapy" drugs that treated her form of cancer.

The Katy Trail plan grew from hearing of people riding its length in one day.

Mike Weiss, owner-operator of Big Shark Bicycle Shop and one of Ben's sponsors, said riding the trail in one day was known to happen but that no one kept records.

"I know a few people have done it, probably more," Weiss said. "That's long-distance, but the surface, it's gravel and that's more friction."

Ben started training in January, with plans to make the ride in late spring once the weather improved.

June 9, a Monday, was drizzling, but he decided to go, regardless of the weather; he'd already postponed one ride because of the conditions.

He'd trained with intense riding, making several 100-mile rides on the trail; training at night on his stationary bike in his home; eating meals of salmon and pasta.

"He ate a lot. And with him and the boys, I found myself going to the grocery store a lot," Bridget DuMont said with a laugh.

He started about 5 a.m. in Clinton, Mo., where the trail begins. His father shadowed him in a car along adjacent roads.

"It was like riding through a sandy beach," Ben DuMont said.

The rain mixed with the limestone-gravel trail created a special kind of mud, enough to make much of his ride miserable.

"Every time I thought about quitting, I'd run into a flat smooth spot, or I'd pick up a tail wind and I'd keep going," Ben said.

A friend on a bicycle joined him about 40 miles outside of St. Charles. That's when he knew he'd reach his goal.

The Kevlar-belted tires, the Cannondale road bike, the high-energy supplements, the diluted Gatorade and willpower had done their job.

Bridget and the family waited at the finish line, but for some reason, their cell phones stopped working.

"I was getting a little nervous because we expected him at 9 or 9:15," she said. "They didn't have lights on their heads and it was pitch black with the overcast."

Everyone exhaled as they saw Ben and his friend emerge from the darkness. "I was glad it was over," she said.

With her victory over cancer, and his over the ride, they don't feel they've made any great conquest.

"When this all began, a friend said to me, don't focus on the cancer, focus on God. It took about a week for that to sink in," Ben DuMont said.

"I look at the situation we're in, and a lot of people don't have health insurance; they don't have a team of doctors to fight the cancer. We just have to look, given the situation, at how we've been blessed. A positive attitude is part of a successful outcome."