I am participating in the Sole 2 Soul for MPN trek in support, well actually to honor, my good friend Gary Linehan. A bit more about his diagnosis later – first, I would like to share a little about what makes Gary such a special person.

Gary is the vice principal at the high school that I’ve been working at for 28 years. As a relative newcomer to our school system, Gary did not take long to win over staff and students alike. Gary has that unique ability to make connections with people, whether a seasoned veteran like myself or a brand new freshman student walking into high school for the first time. Gary is simply perfect for the job. To witness Gary in action as he works the cafeteria is something to behold. It’s like he has a personal relationship with each and every student. You’ll catch him firing off a quick one-liner that will result in a chuckle or you’ll hear him asking a student about their day, a game they played the night before, or how they did on their driver’s license exam. And considering one of his main responsibilities is student discipline, you’d never know by the way students adore him.

That brings me to last January of 2021, when out of the blue I, along with the rest of the staff received a ‘gut punch’ in the form of an incredibly detailed, heartfelt email from Gary informing us of his recent diagnosis. He began by explaining how the persistent pain he was feeling in his toes, which he had attributed to his rigorous hiking, had led him to see a doctor. He then talked of blood tests, oncologists, and introduced us to words like essential thrombocytosis, myeloproliferative neoplasm, and finally about his diagnosis of polycythemia vera -- a blood cancer. He explained to us how upon his hearing the word “cancer" he was only able to hear ever other word the doctor spoke. As he began thinking of all of the more important questions like “What would he need to do? How much time did he have? What will his wife Jess do? Does he tell his kids?” He laid it all out there.

Gary’s email hit a tender spot with me. I remember, like it was yesterday, the day my wife got word that she had breast cancer. I have a vivid recollection of driving up to Boston with our son to meet with our two daughters, who were in college, to inform them all of my wife’s diagnosis. It was one of the hardest days of our life. Thankfully, my wife was one of the lucky ones and is now cancer free and has been for the past 10 years.

Gary’s email also got me because he reminds me a lot of a buddy of mine who passed away several years ago from ALS. They both share a passion for the outdoors. Both being hikers, skiers, winter campers, and above all, they both loved the mountains. I made this connection when skiing with Gary when he resurrected the ski club at our high school that I had run in the early 2000’s. Skiing with him reminded me of skiing with my buddy Alden who I’ve hiked and skied Tuckerman Ravine with on two occasions.

This had to end differently.

So last summer when Gary decided he would make a stand against this disease by hiking the Long Trail in Vermont — a 273-mile trek from the border of our home state of Massachusetts to the Canadian border –I asked what I could do. Gary’s response was simply that this was something he had to do on his own, but he would love a little company along the way. So with that, a fellow faculty member named Paul Bertrand and I did our part and spent a mere four days (50 miles or so) on the trail with Gary.

So when the opportunity arose to join Gary on this adventure it was going to be an easy decision to make.

Donate to Paul’s fundraising page: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/s2s22/account/1294460/