Before dawn today, a cadre of 19 Miami Police officers embarked on a heartfelt quest, cycling from Miami's Bayfront Park to Orlando, covering a span of over 260 miles. Their mission, borne of camaraderie and personal battle, was to elevate understanding and support for leukemia and lymphoma struggles. This endeavor was punctuated by the trials within their own ranks, as these officers ride to honor Patricia "Patty" McCrink, the wife of Detective Joseph McCrink, a stalwart 28-year member of the force who has intimately felt the havoc wreaked by blood cancer.
Having traded patrol cars for bicycles, the officers and their resilience, reported by WSVN, were lauded by Miami Police Chief Manny Morales before they set off. Trading in their cruisers, the participating officers, after months of intense preparation, were joined by three first responders from Miami Fire Rescue for medical backup as they ventured on this physically demanding journey.
The officers aim to amass funds and further the conversation around these diseases. So far, their efforts have amassed $31,000 to bequeath to Blood Cancer United, an entity dedicated to treatment, access, and care—a detail highlighted by Local10. The journey, punctuated by familial unity, includes both sons of Patty and Joseph McCrink, officers themselves, standing as testament to the familial and community solidarity that cancer so often invokes.
Reflecting on the tribulation, Patty McCrink offered insight into the early, oft-ignored symptoms of her disease, such as night sweats and unexplained bruising, and recounted the subsequent arduous battle with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. "There were a lot of days that, you know, we had some hard days going through this, and you know, we've been married for 32 years, and we've had our battles and they've been good and bad, and we just work through it and say, 'Hey, we're not gonna let this disease tear us apart,'" Detective McCrink told Local10. This personal backstory augments the ride's significance, imbuing it with the collective hope and resolve to triumph over adversity.
The officers are scheduled to persist in their pedaling endeavor for seven to eight hours a day, concluding their altruistic pilgrimage in Orlando by Friday. Every mile trekked and every dollar raised serve as conduits for greater understanding and empathy for those in the thrall of blood cancers, embodying, as Joseph McCrink put it to WSVN, "People need to be more caring and really understand what it's like to be a good person and just trying, you know, [to] be the person you can be."
