The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute calls its biggest fund-raiser of the year the Pan-Mass Challenge.

 

But participants know that the challenge of riding their bicycles 177 miles from Worcester to Provincetown pales in comparison to the day-to-day challenge faced by cancer survivors.

 

"Riding side-by-side, you share stories," Great Barrington's Peter Whitehead said recently. "Everyone has a story, whether it's personal themselves or a family member. There's a lot of back-and forth.

 

"And there's the Living Proof group that gathers together on Saturday afternoon at the end of the ride. All the people who have had cancer or still have cancer. People often at the end of that meeting get up to tell a story, and it's just amazing some of the things people have gone through in their fight against cancer.

 

"It's inspirational."

 

For 46 years, riders have been drawing on those inspirations to power through a two-day ride across the commonwealth and raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since 1980, the event has raised $1.125 billion for the treatment and research center, and it accounts for 67 percent of the Jimmy Fund's annual revenue.

 

This year's ride, scheduled for Aug. 1 and 2, includes at least 17 Berkshire County residents among the 6,000 cyclists planning to complete the ride to the tip of Cape Cod.