Remembering Tricia Seidenspinner and Supporting People With MBC

Trish Seidenspinner

In 2013, Tricia Seidenspinner of Islip, NY, contacted MBCN about getting some of our t-shirts and buttons to wear during an overnight walk event for the American Cancer Society. We were glad to provide her with some of our “Scan, Treat, Repeat” items which she shared with her fellow participants. In the fall of 2015, she contacted us about attending our conference at Dana Farber. Tricia attended many conferences since her initial diagnosis eight years ago, and had a deep desire to understand the pathology of cancer, and the details around treatment options and trials.

Tricia passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family and friends on May 28, 2016.

Many of her friends made generous donations in her honor to MBCN. In June, we heard from Tricia’s oldest childhood friend, Lisa Wolf. She told us that over the past seven years, she and her horsemanship club had raised more than $65,000 for some local breast cancer organizations and had chosen to support MBCN and SHARE this year. Lisa and Tricia had started these benefit rides in 2008, after Tricia had suggested Lisa and her horse participate in an event in another state. Instead, the ladies decided to just host their own.

“Tricia Seidenspinner was and will remain the inspiration behind these benefit rides,” Lisa said. “This year’s ride is a memorial to her. We want to create greater understanding about the impact of Metastatic Cancers and the need to support those dealing with them. Tricia strongly felt that the needs of Metastatic patients needed to be brought more to the forefront of the breast cancer movement. Tricia was a big fan of your organization, and we wore your shirts in some of the many walks we participated in over the years.”

This year’s event took place Oct. 9^th at the Connetquot River State Park Preserve on Long Island, NY. The rainy weather didn’t dampen participants’ support—there was delicious food, a great gift basket auction and many fond tributes to Tricia, and an amazing $10,000 and counting was raised!

Special thanks to Christine Benjamin and our friends at SHARE Cancer Support for attending on behalf of MBCN. We are deeply appreciative for Lisa Wolf’s tireless organizational efforts and for her thoughtfulness and all who celebrated Tricia Seidenspinner’s life with this very meaningful event!