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Photograph by Paul Myers
Ann Haynes (right) organized several local events to raise funds for her upcoming bicycle ride, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The event at C.B. Hannegan's featured a liar's dice tournament in which players, like Pat Moore (left), competed against pub co-owner Johnny Hannegan.
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Local bicyclist rides against cancer
By Shari Kaplan
Seeking the silver lining, and turning something negative into something positive are two of Los Gatan Anne Haynes' favorite sayings. Not content to simply talk the talk, Haynes is also walking the walk--or in this case, bicycling it--to raise both awareness and money for her favorite cause: the nonprofit Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Haynes is not content to raise these dual banners on her own. On the contrary, the extroverted 31-year-old has gotten much of Los Gatos behind her as she prepares physically and mentally for the Seacoast 100-Mile Century Ride, an event scheduled for Sept. 23 and put on by Team in Training, one of the society's major fundraising arms.
Often called TNT, it is the largest endurance training program in the United States. In exchange for getting training, coaching and nutritional advice by professionals, the team's runners, walkers and bicyclists participate in marathons and rides nationwide to raise funds and awareness for the society, whose goal is to eradicate all blood-related cancers: leukemia, Hodgkins' and non-Hodgkins' lymphoma and myeloma.
It's a personal crusade for Haynes, who lost both parents to cancer. Her father, Benjamin Owen Haynes, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia in 1991, underwent a bone marrow transplant several years later and died of pneumonia in December 1998. Haynes' mother, Mary Ann Haynes, diagnosed in 1996 with what is called "carcinoma from an unknown primary," died in April following aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.
"To be quite honest, I'm not a hardcore fitness person. I could easily sit on the couch and watch DVD movies and be depressed," Haynes reveals. "I'd always wanted to do Team in Training, but it wasn't possible because I was working and then constantly taking leaves [of absence] from work because of my parents."
Propitiously for Haynes, her most recent job at a start-up dot-com ended earlier this year when the company went out of business. This gave her the final impetus to join Team in Training. "It's a way of getting closure on the loss of my parents. I'm gonna make a positive out of a negative!" she asserts.
"What I like about the Leukemia & Lymphona Society is that they're very active in the lives of researchers and patients, and they put 76 cents of every dollar directly into research," Haynes adds.
Every TNT member who participates in an event like the Seacoast Century Ride, which will take Haynes and thousands of others through New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, is expected to raise a minimum of $3,500 in sponsorships. Haynes went several steps further, organizing fundraising nights at three popular Los Gatos gathering spots.
On Sept. 5, the venue was Carry Nations. Los Gatan Jeff Hinkin donated the time of his band, while the bar supplied drink tickets in exchange for donations.
The coaches also came on Sept. 12 and 13 to restaurant C.B. Hannegan's and nightclub Mountain Charley's, respectively.
Haynes can be contacted at ahaynes@annehaynes.com.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
