July 10, 2009 First-time rider takes on PMC for a cure and promise Play video

(NECN: Leslie Gaydos) - This is a busy woman. Kristin Beauparlant is an active mother of three, an oncology nurse at Mass General Hospital, and she's training for a two-day 190-mile bicycle ride.

“I try to get out as much as I can. I think I’ve done 53 miles. It’s the most I’ve done so far and that was pretty good. It is difficult with the children to find hours upon hours to get out.

Beauparlant is making good on a promise. She will ride the Pan Mass Challenge in memory of a friend....her patient who died of ovarian cancer last October.

Beth Bennett rice died a few days after Kristin made her promise.

Beth had taken part in the PMC for years with her husband Peter who founded the Seacoast Young team in New Hampshire in memory of a friend who died of breast cancer.

After years of raising money for cancer research Beth was diagnosed in 2005 with a rare and aggressive form of ovarian cancer. And she began treatment at Mass General Hospital.

Peter: They all were incredibly caring group of people. Nobody more than Kristin. She would stay past her shift and come in and wash Beth’s hair and talk and so forth. She just had this huge beautiful heart that was just as beautiful as she was.

Kristin: “She was just such an amazing woman. She had such strength and will and desire in her life. She was always so optimistic.

And I think we just had an immediate connection with each other and just really formed a great

In an interview the year before she died, Beth Bennett recalled her final PMC in August of 2006. She rode despite learning that after a period of remission, her cancer had returned.

Beth's PMC jersey and her bike will make the trip again this year, thanks to Kristin.

Still inspired by her friend, Kristin is ready.

“I know she would tell me that you'll do fine. That was always our conversation was Kristin you can do it. You can do it. I know that she'll say you can do it and I know that she would be proud. She'd be proud.”

“Just to be able to wear her gear and have her bike...it's just beyond words. She'll be there with me. Yes. She will be.”