About Me

Profile

About: Hey everybody! My name is Seamus Hawley and I’m going to be a Junior here at UT this fall. I’m a student in the Plan II honors program pursuing a degree in Psychology and focusing on pre-med classes to hopefully someday end up in medical school. Before I ended up in Texas, I spent the formative years of my life in Minneapolis, MN with my parents, Elizabeth and Chris, and my kick ass brother William. When I’m not in classes here in Austin, I’m spending time involved with the Tejas organization or volunteering at the hospital downtown. But, let me tell you about the more important things about me: I try to live my life with as much of a soundtrack as possible. I love music and when I’m not able to play it I’ll be listening to it. I love trying to make situations more entertaining by matching the right song for the moment. I try to spend as much time as possible by surrounding myself with the friends and family I love and make new memories with them.

Why I Ride

Growing up I was pretty lucky to never be forced to understand what cancer really is. I grew up at a distance, unaware that the disease was something other than a quality of “old age.” My grandma passed from cancer before I was born and I didn't understand the tragedy of the situation, I just saw my dad's sadness- how much he missed her. 


As I’ve grown older, my distance to cancer has progressively shrunk. While I would hear friends talk of distant family members struggles with the disease from time to time, the notion of what cancer really was didn’t present itself until I watched a friend grapple with losing her mother. It wasn’t until that time that I understood that cancer was far more detrimental than “natural causes”; rather, it was a devastating disease that could affect anyone at any point in their life.


Over the past year, cancer has positioned itself as a central component of my life. I’ve recently committed myself to working at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and through my experiences there, I learned the massive impact that this disease has on humanity. While growing up I had seen metrics that showed how devastating the disease was and is, it has been another ordeal realizing the disease’s true terror by reading it on afflicted families faces. Seeing cancer at such a close proximity, I’ve learned so much. I’ve learned that cancer has an image, a smell, and a feeling. Most importantly, though, I’ve learned the power of the spirit, of hope and the necessity for quality care and knowledge.

I ride for Kristin, for Gail, for Sarah, for the countless names afflicted by this terrible disease. I ride for those who can’t. I ride to spread hope, knowledge, and charity from Austin to Anchorage.

Cancer doesn’t quit, so neither can I.