Matthew Starring and Andrea Schindler have formed a close bond since she became his nurse practitioner in the late spring of last year. In two weeks, she’ll be riding for Starring in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, an annual charity bike-a-thon that raises millions for cancer research.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

BARRINGTON

While Matthew Starring is undergoing a bone-marrow transplant, his nurse practitioner will not be in the waiting room, or even in the hospital.

Instead, Andrea Schindler will be biking 111 miles from Sturbridge to Bourne, fulfilling Starring’s wish of participating in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, an annual charity bike-a-thon that raises millions for cancer research.

It’s a rather unusual switch, the duo said this week, but the return of the 22-year-old Barrington resident’s leukemia last year prompted him to find a replacement biker. The event typically is only open to patients and family, but the PMC officials willingly allowed the exchange. And though Schindler, 42, of Cranston, was hesitant at first due to past back problems, she agreed to put her year-old Orbea road bike to the test.

Starring, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in January 2007, was hoping to ride in the event as a registered survivor of cancer, but after a routine visit to his doctor last July he learned he his cancer had come back.

“I remember it very well,” Starring said. “I don’t remember really ‘feeling’ at all. I was just taking it in stride.”

Starring said before that moment he had felt “too lucky,” since his bout with cancer had been so short. After being diagnosed, he underwent chemotherapy and was in remission three months later, and able to return to Emerson College, where he is a theater studies major, by September.

“I feel like now I’m really fighting the fight,” he said.

Schindler mostly sat quietly, while Starring discussed his condition. She became his nurse practitioner in the late spring of last year. She says Starring and his family –– his parents, Jayne and Mark, and his sister, Allison, 15, who will be the marrow donor –– are “remarkable people.”

Jayne called Schindler a “godsend” and Allison called her Starring’s “biggest fan.”

Schindler said, “There are people that come through our lives and you just connect.”

Though athletic all her life, Schindler said she had never ridden the distance she will on Aug. 2, but added she’s stuck to the training schedule recommended on the PMC Web site, which Starring had planned to follow during a summer job in Maine.

“It’s my legs, my bike, but it’s his gig,” said Schindler.

Starring said he feels strongly about the PMC, which he registered for last winter. His father will be riding alongside Schindler, and Starring said he is grateful for his supporters.

“In the course of treatment, the world kind of did something to me that I couldn’t really push back on,” Starring said about his relapse. “There are so many people who are so strong-willed about fighting cancer and finding a cure for cancer. … To be a part of the people that are willing to fight so hard, it’s unparalleled.”

At that point, Schindler interrupted Starring. “And that’s why I’m doing this. Because it means a lot to him.”

To participate in the event, the bikers had to raise a minimum donation depending on the chosen mileage, which varies from 47 miles to nearly 200. Schindler and Starring’s mileage needed a $3,000 minimum. Starring had already begun fundraising on his own through various Web sites and soliciting friends and family when he relapsed and discovered he would need the bone-marrow transplant.

Then the Miriam Hospital, specifically the Hematology and Oncology group, stepped in to donate the money needed from its charitable funds.

“I’ll never forget the day I told you, you were quite ill” Schindler said, looking at Starring. Continuing, she said, “He was fundraising, from his bed, on his computer. … I said to him, ‘Everything that we raised from here on out is icing on the cake because we got the minimum.’ ”

The “icing” is at $2,105 on Starring’s end, and $1,845 for Schindler, according to their PMC profiles on the Web site.

Schindler said, referring to the ride, “In the grand scheme of things, it’s a small piece.” The bigger picture in the story is Starring’s lifesaving bone-marrow transplant.

It began with a piece of good luck. Statistically, Allison had only a 25 percent chance of being a perfect match for her brother, Schindler said.

In the treatment, Starring’s immune system will be “wiped out” with chemotherapy and total body radiation. Schindler said this process would also make space in his bone marrow so he could accept the cells from his sister.

Before this, Allison will receive injections to raise her stem-cell count. In a process called “apheresis” where no surgery is needed, some of Allison’s marrow will be removed and stem cells will be extracted to be put into her brother’s body. Once her stem cells are transfused into her brother, the hope is that the new immune system that will grow will prevent leukemia cells from invading the body.

“There’s a certain kind of blind strength that I don’t think anybody is conscious of, and she probably would never even have thought capable until posed with something like this,” Starring said of his sister.

Schindler said Allison’s recovery would be quick, with a possible side effect of bone pain, which can be treated with pain medication. Starring would stay in the hospital for four to six weeks, but if the treatment is successful, he would stand a 50 to 60 percent chance of being cancer-free the rest of his life.

“That’s what we’re planning on, because he needs to be riding beside me next time,” Schindler said.

Local bicyclists in the challenge1

The 29th Pan-Massachusetts Challenge will host 5,500 cyclists next month. The PMC runs through 46 towns across Massachusetts. Participants, ranging from ages 15 to 83, can choose a specific route, from 40 miles to 200 miles over a course of one or two days. Last year, the event raised $33 million for cancer research, and its goal for this year is $34 million. The event was founded in 1980 by Billy Starr, the executive director, growing from just 36 riders that first year.

Here’s the list of other participants in the PMC from the East Bay region of Rhode Island and nearby communities in Massachusetts:

BARRINGTON: Gareth Conner, Matthew Gagliano, Jesse Goldberg, Lucia Matthews, Paul Matthews, Doug Mayhew, Joop Nagtegaal, Robert Powers, Navyn Salem, Daniel Sullivan, Newell Thomas.

BRISTOL: Ted Hanley, Karen Irons.

EAST PROVIDENCE: Thomas Hudson.

LITTLE COMPTON: Robert Brooks, Richard Keigher.

MIDDLETOWN: Chuck Larcom, Robert Weston.

NEWPORT: David Norton, Richard Plotkin, Tim Richards, Eloise Tamer, Geoff Van Gorkom.

ATTLEBORO: Paul Cannata, Roy Laverty, Kevin Manning, Flavio Pacheco, Justin Rodrigues, Susan Traversi.

FALL RIVER: Adam Savino-Schwalm.

NORTH ATTLEBORO: Craig Christo, Ann Vieira, Jeremy Betsold, Mark Buron, Colleen Duffy, Frank Duffy, Jack Fitzgibbons, Stephen Fong, David Hughes, Jim Laferriere, Lea MacNider, Alice McConville, Andrew McConville, Donna McGrath, Christine Mills, Joseph Mills, Janet Mooney, Michael Parent, Nancy Parent, Linda Poidomani, Maureen Renzi, Michael Renzi, John Reynolds, Mark Stockwell, Maura Thursby, Michael Thursby, Kevin Barney.

REHOBOTH: Suzanne Caldeira, Richard Moschella.

SEEKONK: Tim Preston, Cheryl Williams.

cthompson@projo.com