Dotty Bratcher, a die-hard rider who rode regardless of the distance or the weather, served as a long time advocate of the Women's Motorcyclist Foundation and its efforts to grow the ranks of women motorcyclists.  In 1994, after having had numerous surgeries for benign cysts, Dotty was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. 

Totally undaunted, Dotty petitioned, cajoled, out-talked, and pushed her way into every clinical trial from which she felt she could benefit.  Dotty's courage and tenacity won her five additional years of quality living.  Moreover, Dotty served as a role model to other survivors and their families as to how to seek and receive the best that our researchers, oncologists, and surgeons have to offer.

Dotty did her homework and became an expert at self-advocacy. Sharing her knowledge and skills, she helped herself and others lobby for the latest in treatments that would slow their cancers down, force their cancers into remission, and/or make life with cancer and treatments such that one could still experience zestful living, not just surviving.

Maximizing upon each morning's wake-up, Dotty was still riding her motorcycle two months before her death.  She was fully aware that cancer would eventually take her life but stated, "Sure, cancer's going to kill me, but it's not going to kill me today!"

Dotty's approach to life mandates that we stay the course.  And so we will, until breast cancer too is history.


Bill's and Dotty's Journal Quotes