A Message About the Future of YSC Tour de Pink Cycling Event

Dear TDP Bubble,

In 2004, six riders set out from Boston to New York with a shared goal and a whole lot of heart. YSC Tour de Pink (TDP) co-founder, Lisa J. Frank, couldn't ride that year due to her own breast cancer treatment, but she showed up anyway, making sure those riders had food, shelter, and everything they needed to cross the finish line. That moment of fierce, generous, behind-the-scenes sense of community captured the ongoing spirit of TDP perfectly.

For more than two decades, TDP cycling grew into something extraordinary: a community of riders, supporters, survivors and thrivers bound together by the belief that a common goal creates connection, and that connection can change lives.

Today, we're writing to share that the YSC Tour de Pink Lisa J. Frank Memorial Ride has reached the end of its remarkable journey. YSC Tour de Pink will live on as a way to give to YSC, just without the wheels. If you've ever fundraised in its name, that door remains open.

This was not a decision we made lightly. Lisa's legacy is woven into the DNA of this organization, and honoring it means asking ourselves the same question she always did: where does this community need us most?

The answer to that question has led us to something new, and we hope Lisa would recognize her own spirit in it.

YSC Wellness Summit

The YSC Wellness Summit began in 2022 in response to the needs voiced by today’s young breast cancer community. It’s an immersive experience that blends self-care, inspiration, and connection, the same pillars that TDP cycling was built on, expanded into every dimension of wellness. From movement to meditation, deep conversation to moments of stillness, the YSC Wellness Summit is designed to meet the young breast cancer community wherever they are: in treatment, years out, or somewhere in between.

It is community-rooted. It is for young adults affected by breast cancer. And it is built on the same foundation Lisa helped lay in 1998, when a small group of survivors got together and said: we deserve to be in this conversation.

That conversation continues. It just looks a little different now.

Lisa remains Rider #1. Always. Her name, her energy, and her determination will travel with this community into everything we do next.

We’ve also created the Lisa J. Frank Travel Grant Program for the YSC Wellness Summit and YSC Summit. This program offers financial support to help young breast cancer survivors and thrivers with the costs they incur traveling to this in-person event. Travel grants expand access to this vital community and the support critical as young survivors and thrivers navigate life after their diagnosis. In this way, Lisa’s legacy of supporting the young breast cancer community lives on.

We invite you to carry what TDP cycling gave you — the confidence, the connection, the sense that you can do hard things — into this next chapter with us.

Learn more about the YSC Wellness Summit. 

With love and gratitude for every mile,

Mary Ajango
YSC Executive Director