NEWBURYPORT — Oh say, can you see local resident and cancer survivor Denise DeSimone singing the national anthem at Fenway Park?
Tomorrow, you will.
Newburyport resident DeSimone, 55, will belt out the high C during "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the Red Sox honor cancer survivors and Pan-Mass Challenge cyclists, of which DeSimone is both.
The Red Sox Foundation is a presenting sponsor of the Pan-Mass Challenge, which will be Aug. 6 and 7.
DeSimone's performance comes as her memoir, "From Stage IV to Center Stage," will be published next month by Balboa Press, a self-publishing company that is a division of Hay House Publishing.
Her book chronicles her journey from the end of the 2005 bike race charity event through the 2007 race.
In 2005, it was just days after the race that DeSimone was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer. Prior to her diagnosis and during her training, she complained to doctors about a sore throat and a lump on her neck. Doctors kept telling her it was nothing.
She also felt tired, but she had been training for the Pan-Mass Challenge, requiring hundreds of miles of bike rides a week.
The stage IV throat and neck cancer left her unable to eat or drink, and she could barely speak. She went through a painful and aggressive cancer treatment process, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. For nine months, she had to be fed through a feeding tube. Singing was out of the question.
But DeSimone would not give up. She endured the painful treatment, found strength through her spirituality and eventually regained her voice and strength. DeSimone rode in the PMC again in 2007 and 2008.
After starting her book in 2007, DeSimone retreated to Greensboro, N.C., this past winter to write, spending 10 hours a day drafting and completing the book.
In addition, she attended ministerial school and became an ordained interfaith minister through Chaplaincy Institute of Maine's Massachusetts campus.
"Self-love is the all-time greatest healer. People don't love themselves enough," DeSimone said.
It's one of the lessons DeSimone learned from her recovery and that she delves into in her book.
Her book isn't about her "battle" with cancer, she said. It's about her "making peace" with the disease.
"I befriended it, really," DeSimone said. "I looked at it as an opportunity to befriend something that was attacking my body."
Tomorrow will not be the first time that DeSimone will sing at Fenway Park in front of 37,000 people. She previously sang the song in 2007 at Fenway.
DeSimone is a "virtual rider" for the Pan-Mass Challenge this year, which means she is raising money for the Jimmy Fund but is not riding. She has ridden in the race four times.
To donate to DeSimone's Pan-Mass Challenge virtual ride online: www.pmc.org/profile/DD0220
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