“It does not matter how or when you die. The only question is, did you really live?” These words, by the late Dr. Jerri Lin FitzGerald, defined the success and palpable enthusiasm among participants who united Oct. 3 at Twin Orchard Farm in Southampton, Mass., for the inaugural Canter Against Cancer benefit trail ride and pig roast to support the medical scholarship launched in the physician’s name by the University of Toledo Foundation.

Gaining national attention in 1999 for treating her own breast cancer while stationed at a South Pole research center, FitzGerald authored (under her then-married name Nielsen), the book Icebound about her ordeal, before metastatic brain cancer overtook her in June 2009.
 
American Horse Publication members L.A. Pomeroy and Claudia Sarti, friends of the doctor and her husband, Tom FitzGerald, developed the idea for a benefit ride in her memory with the help of the Western Massachusetts Public Health Association and Charles Kaniecki, owner of the 140-acre Twin Orchard Farm that hosted the event. Also supporting the cause was Rotary International, whose Southwick (MA) chapter generously provided volunteers.
 
Dr. Fitzgerald was immensely touched by her alma mater starting a scholarship in her name. With all that she accomplished in life–as a physician, cancer warrior, and ambassador for cancer awareness, including speaking at the White House–she saw this scholarship was one of her crowning achievements, said Pomeroy and Sarti