Kenny Pickett, Merril Hoge share personal reasons for helping to aid cancer research
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Early Saturday morning, on one of his last days before the start of Pittsburgh Steelers OTAs, second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett made his way through the rain outside of Stage AE. As the first-ever honorary event chair of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center “Rush to Crush Cancer,” Pickett served as the starter for the third of three waves of bike rides.
Crushed it ????
Pitt Athletics was proud to support our partner @UPMCHillmanCC at today’s inaugural @R2C_Cancer! ????
Had some help at the start too from Panther legend and event chair @kennypickett10 pic.twitter.com/AR9bdyboUg
— Pitt Panthers (@Pitt_ATHLETICS) May 20, 2023
The inaugural event is designed to be an annual fundraiser for cancer-fighting research. Approximately 750 bikers showed up for the ride, something UPMC Hillman hopes to turn into a yearly staple on its fundraising calendar.
Pickett knows integrating himself into events like this one is something important for him to do as he becomes more and more established in his role as starting QB and the potential face of the Steelers franchise.
“I have a great platform to help a lot of people. So I want to take advantage of it for as long as I play and even after my playing days. I’d love to continue to do things to help people, brighten people’s day and lift people up,” Pickett said.
As a 13-year-old growing up in New Jersey, Pickett lost a 10-year-old cousin, Mya Terry, who fought lymphoma and leukemia. Pickett has been active with a foundation in Terry’s name in his hometown of Ocean Township, N.J. It has raised in excess of $1 million. He’s been doing charitable work with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh dating back to his playing days at Pitt. So his effort to aid the battle against cancer is not just about basic outreach or a sense of responsibility because of his place in the public eye.
“You really never know the impact until you kind of hear stories and know people that are affected by (cancer),” Pickett said. “Having it in my family and getting involved in the community around where I was from and then learning about all the people around me — families that were affected — you know how serious it is. The advancements they make on a year-to-year basis in order to help patients and get cured, it’s really special.”
Retired Steelers player and current team scout Merril Hoge is an example of what can become of the funding that events like the “Rush to Crush Cancer” bike ride can generate. The night before the event, he spoke at the PNC Survivors Walk on the North Shore, which featured roughly 400 participants.
Hoge was diagnosed with lymphoma on Valentine’s Day 2003. As the former running back describes it, a three-pound tumor was found in his back. Yet he has been cancer free now for nearly two decades.
“Ten years prior to my diagnosis, there was no treatment for my cell type. Ten years before, if I get that diagnosis, I’ve got no chance,” Hoge said. “Without people doing these types of events, there is no research being done because there is no funding. Ten years before my diagnosis, when there was no treatment, a bunch of these walks were taking place. Funding was created. That funding went into research. That research developed a treatment that saved my life.”
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The ongoing cancer research isn’t just about waging war on forms of the disease and searching for cures. It’s about making the treatments more tolerable and less difficult for the patients to endure.
“Ten or 15 years ago, solid tumors and blood cancers — liquid tumors — would’ve gotten three to four toxic chemos for a long time,” said Dr. Robert Ferris, director of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. “Now we may make a cellular therapy — called a CAR — that may eliminate somebody’s cancer and be a living drug. It floats around and lives. The cells divide and persist for weeks and months. So you give one infusion, and that just sits there killing off the cancer cells for a long period of time.”
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center chairman Stan Marks is the doctor that treated Hoge. The two men appeared on stage Friday night. Hoge said it was the first time in a public setting that he had the chance to thank Marks for what he had done. But Marks says the volunteer aspect that Hoge and Pickett have embraced via their platform with the Steelers is the tribute that really matters.
“It’s very important. When people see Merril, who is a cancer survivor — Kenny Pickett, who is the most popular guy in town now — immediately, they are much more likely to get involved and participate,” Marks said.
Now, with Pickett and Hoge helping to get the ride off the ground in Year 1, there’s reason to believe there will be even more of that involvement when the event returns in 2024.