Kids who've vanquished cancer just want to leave it behind
When Motty Reicher of Spring Valley suited up for the Bike4Chai bike-a-thon five years ago to raise funds for Chai Lifeline, he never imagined that within the year, his own teenage son would need the services of the organization he was pedaling away for.
This summer, Mr. Reicher again donned the ubiquitous blue and yellow jersey for the 100-mile route and raised the requisite minimum $5,000, but this time it wasn’t just a tzedakah drive. It was a ride of thanksgiving.
Because after a harrowing few years of surgeries and chemo treatments, tears and prayers and unchartered reserves of emunah and bitachon, Pinchas Reicher is now cancer-free.
I met Pinchas and his father earlier this year in Jerusalem, as part of a “graduation” group trip sponsored by Chai Lifeline, whose services provide emotional, social, and financial assistance to families and young patients with life-threatening or lifelong illnesses. For the 12 teens and parents on the tour, it was really a celebration of life, health, and reentry back into the world of “normal” — a culmination of months and years of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, as well as the loneliness and isolation that’s part of the overwhelming cancer journey in their battle for survival.
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