OVER THE LAST three years, Michelle Leonard has put thousands of miles on her car as she traveled to and from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, so what's another 168 miles?

This time, however, Michelle will cover those miles on a bicycle.

She's taking part in the Pan-Mass Challenge. That's what they call the nation's original fundraising bike-a-thon for charity, and come Aug. 4, Michelle will saddle up and join 4,000 other riders in a quest to conquer cancer.

Michelle will be riding alone, but her 7-year-old son Jake will be with her in spirit, just as she and her husband, Mike, were with him throughout his battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Jake Leonard won’t be riding along with his mom, but he’ll be with her in spirit when Michelle Leonard takes part in the Pan-Mass Challenge. (JOHN CLAYTON)

"It was Dec. 13, 2004," she said, "a day I will never forget."

That's the date Jake was first diagnosed with his cancer. Michelle had just begun a job as a physical therapist at Catholic Medical Center. She left her job to help with Jake's care. He was a first-grader at Webster School at the time, but three months at Children's Hospital put an end to that year of schooling. Meanwhile, it was a difficult education for Michelle.

Jake was in and out of the hospital for the next two years. In addition to caring for their other three children - Ryan, Gabby and Sophia - Mike and Michelle had to tend to Jake's medical needs at home, and the Pan-Mass Challenge of 2005 offered a much-needed respite.

"Mike and I rode it together," she said. "It was 170 miles from Wellesley to Bourne and back. Jake was right in the middle of getting treatments - I was doing his IV therapy at home - and riding in the challenge was a great distraction for us.

"It's a pretty helpless feeling when you're seeing your child go through something like this, but when you're on the bike, at least you feel like you're doing something. And then, as you're riding along, when you see your son's face on a big poster as one of the 'Pedal Partners,'" she said, and paused, "well ... the pedaling gets a little easier for a while."

Things are easier for Jake now, too.

"He finished his treatments in January," she said. "We still have to go to Dana-Farber every month for bloodwork and we'll do that for a year. After that, it's every six months to make sure it doesn't come back, but he's doing great.

"He couldn't do any sports when he was sick but now he's taking tae kwon do at the Y - he just got his first belt and broke his first board, which is a very big deal - and he's running around and he's fighting with his brother, which is his job, after all, so he's doing great."

And his mom's doing a great thing.

"I'm lucky to be riding as a part of the Jimmy Fund Team," she said. "There are 16 of us, all with close ties to the Jimmy Fund. Our team leader is Lisa Sherber, who's head of the children's room at the clinic, plus there are doctors and nurses and four other parents, and 99 cents of every dollar we raise will go to the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana-Farber."

Michelle already has $1,500 in pledges but she's hoping to raise $3,500.

"It was such a difficult road for us that I never want this to happen to any other child," she said. "I'd like to see them eradicate all forms of cancer. To do that takes money, and my time and effort is something I can give to help them do that."

If you'd like to help her do that, you can make pledges on her Pan-Mass Challenge web page - it's http://www.pmc.org/mypmc/profiles.asp?Section=story&eGiftID=ML0127 - or you can e-mail her directly at mikchell97@comcast.net.

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Since we're already in the fundraising neighborhood, let's knock on another door.

Actually, pounding on the door might be more appropriate, because the fundraiser in question is for New Hampshire's first-ever entry in the National Poetry Slam.

These five competitive performance poets will travel to Austin, Texas from Aug. 7-11, and the Queen City is home to four of the five. The team includes Summer Whitmore, Cara Losier, Mat Tremblay and alternate Mark Palos, all of Manchester, while Eric Urban from Grafton, Mass., rounds out the roster for coach/adviser Hope Jordan.

"To give you a sense of what we've gone through," Hope said, "we had to go through a yearlong certification process and compete in a regional competition that landed our New Hampshire team in Jamaica Plain at midnight, squaring off against a powerhouse team from New York City."

Current sponsors include John S. Jordan Design, Merchants Auto and Tee-Shirt Bodega, and to further defray the cost of the trip to Austin, the Bridge Cafe will host an Open Mike Night on Friday featuring the title-winning slammers at 7 p.m. Admission is $5. For information, call 303-0538 or contact Hope via e-mail at hopejordan@comcast.net.

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Suzanne McDonald is one lucky dog.

Actually, her dog Dexter is a lucky dog.

The proof will be available later this week, when the New Hampshire State Lottery kicks off it's "Lucky Dog" scratch ticket campaign.

Back in March, I told you about the campaign's main gimmick, which was a search for the most photogenic dogs in New Hampshire. Citizens were invited to submit pics of their pups, and the eight winners would have their pug's mugs emblazoned on thousands of lottery tickets.

By writing about it, I was sending word from Coos to the Sea, but who knew that one of the winners would be sitting in an office right down the hall from me.

That's Sue. She's a sales rep in the classified advertising department here and after reading that March column - at least somebody here reads my column - she got her husband Jim to get their adorable Pomeranian poodle to pose for a picture.

There were 2,100 submissions, and Dexter made the cut. With 1.6 million tickets in print, that means Dexter's on 200,000 of the tickets that will go on sale later this week. Sue's getting 50 free tickets as a form of compensation for using Dexter's image and I'm thinking that when it comes time to scratch, well ... dogs are good at that, aren't they?

John Clayton is the author of several books on Manchester and New Hampshire, including the recently released "You Know You're in New Hampshire When." His e-mail is jclayton@unionleader.com