Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Fundraising motorcyles ride for family of 5-year-old cancer victim

By Ellie White-Stevens
ellie@thecitizennews.com

The Black Jack Riding Chapter is sponsoring a Bike Ride Aug. 1 in memory of 5-year-old Tim Cobb, who lost his battle with brain cancer June 23.

“Tim was an active 5-year-old who lived his life with gusto. Maybe some part of him knew that he didn’t have much time, so he didn’t waste a moment of life,” said Mary Ann Whelan.

Whelan’s son Ryan lost his best friend with Tim’s passing. And her husband is a co-owner in Black Jack Motorcyles in Peachtree City.

Tim attended Hopewell United Methodist Church Preschool, where he made many friends with both students and teachers, including Ryan Whelan. “Timmy lived life wide open,” said Pete Cobb, his dad.

According to friends, he loved school. And he especially enjoyed participating in all the activities, even after he was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor in March of 2003.

Tim lived in Fairburn with his parents, Pete and Abby Cobb, and his sister, Morgan. His paternal grandparents, Pete “Pop” and Elsie, lived next door along with an aunt, uncle, and cousin Cheyenne.

Tim loved riding Pop’s tractor with him and running around the property chasing chickens and roosters. “Timmy is who I came home to,” Pop said. “I would back my logging truck up in the yard, blow the horn and Timmy would come running. He’d climb up in with me and want to drive. He was the light of my life; he would even call me his big brother.”

“Tim would love to spend the night, go swimming and play ‘Sorry,’” said his grandmother. “He was loveable and tender-hearted. He will truly be an awesome angel.”

He was loved with a warm, generous, and loving family and the many friends who rallied around him during his times of chemotherapy and hospitalization, according to Whelan.

He loved going to NASCAR races with his dad, 4-wheeling around the property at home or just “hanging out” at the shop with the “guys.” Tim enjoyed spending lots of time with his dad.

When Tim got sick, his father went to half-time, working only four hours a day at his landscaping business so that he could spend time with his son. Into his illness, his mother also took a leave from her job to care for Tim.

The outdoors was his favorite place to play, especially when he could catch lizards and frogs. He even hung a lizard off the end of his nose to the surprise of his mother.

“Tim was so sweet and loving,” she said. “One morning during a rush to get ready for school and work he said, ‘Mommy, you are so beautiful, and you really make our home pretty.’ I stopped everything for a big hug and kiss.”

He liked riding his battery-operated “Harley” or racing on his bike with his sister, cousin and friends. Tim loved motorcycles but by the time he was old enough to ride, he was too ill.

Tim Cobb’s tumor, a pontine glioma, is an aggressive brain cancer that usually attacks children between the ages of 5 and 9. Tim was 4 when he was diagnosed.

He had some of the symptoms, including a lack of balance and problems controlling his facial expressions. At first doctors thought it was an ear infection, and gave a month of antibiotics. A CT scan found cancer.

He went through over a year of chemotherapy and radiation for a cancer that usually kills quickly and is rarely survived. “He was their longest-living patient,” said Abby Cobb of doctors Anna Janns and Thomas Olsen. “They didn’t know what to do with him anymore. He was strong, a fighter.

“He told me almost every day a status of his day. ‘Me had the best day ever’ or ‘Me had a bad day.’ Ninety-nine percent of the time it was the best day ever,” said Abby Cobb.

After all his treatments, it was a weakened immune system and a respiratory illness that at last hospitalized Tim. Strong to the end, the day before he died, doctors were going to send him home, but he took a turn for the worse.

“His mother told him that he had fought hard, but that she loved him and he could let go, and he died,” said Whelan.

Tim’s best friend, Ryan Whelan, along with Ryan’s dad and the Black Jack Riding Chapter are celebrating Tim’s life with a Bike Ride Aug. 1. Their goal is to raise money to help the Cobb family defray enormous medical expenses and financial hardships that they have endured this past year. “We’d like everyone that can to participate in this ride,” said Laura Markovic, the vice president of the chapter.

The ride will start at Black Jack Motorcycles on Ga. Highway 54 on the edge of Peachtree City at 2 p.m. and will end at the Arctic Circle Grill and Bar in Stockbridge, for food, beverages, door prizes, biker games and a 50/50 drawing.

The first 50 registered bikers will receive a free Biker Buddy T-shirt. A $20 donation for each bike is admission to the ride. All proceeds will go directly to the Cobb Family. For details call Black Jack Motorcyles at 770-486-9888.

For those who cannot participate in the ride, but would like to donate, a memorial fund has been set up through any branch of the Bank of Georgia in Tim Cobb’s name.

“Everyone who had the privilege of knowing Tim, even for a brief time, realize that they were touched by someone very special,” said Mary Ann Whelan. “We will always remember the huge impact that he made on all who knew him.”