Beating cancer is already a monumental achievement. For Onset resident Mimi Secor, it’s just a start. 

“If I was lucky enough to survive cancer, I might as well give back as much as I can,” Secor realized following her treatment, she said. 

Secor is bringing her indomitable spirit to the 2024 Pan-Mass Challenge. 

The Pan-Mass Challenge is a bike-a-thon that raises funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a world leader in cancer treatment and research. 

Secor was diagnosed in August 2023 with fallopian cancer, a rare disease which makes up less than 1% of female cancers. 

A course of chemotherapy was effective, and Secor is in remission. However, that has not erased the impact the experience had on her. 

“It broke my heart, the roommates I had that had advanced cancer,” she said. 

She received her treatment from Dana Farber and wanted to give back to that organization to support the life-saving research it does. 

While Secor is not doing the full two-day, 100-mile ride — her oncologist said it would be too taxing at this stage in her recovery — she went above and beyond in fundraising for the ride. 

She was required to raise $2,000, but when she achieved that goal, she thought, ‘Why not keep raising money?’ Now, she’s heading closer to $11,000, she said. 

And the ride highlights the level of activity Secor has always tried to keep up; she is a nurse practitioner and proponent of healthy living, who did her best to keep up with her Planet Fitness workout routine even while undergoing treatment. 

“I feel great when I’m on my bicycle,” she said.