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GREENSBORO — This is what cancer did to Joann Grimes: It weakened her, terrified her. It sickened and depressed her to no end.

"It was like getting hit with a Mack truck," said Grimes, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 — nine months after her mother died from cancer. "You're moving happily through life and then — BAM! — you're knocked over."

Only Grimes got right back up. Because this is what cancer also did to her: It made her want to live. Not just live, but live.

"I was so caught up in my family and business that the cancer turned me around," she said. "I told myself, 'I'm going to start doing things for Joann.' "

So she did. She started singing, traveling and playing the piano more. She even took up riding a bike again.

About that biking: In 1995, on her 10th anniversary of being cancer-free, Grimes rode 51 miles to the front door of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in Durham. She raised $120,000 for the hospital that year and the Joann Gaddy Grimes Big Event fundraiser was born.

Fifteen years and nearly $5 million later, Grimes is still trucking. She's 75 and made her last bicycle ride to Durham in the spring. The hospital will take over running the race next year.

Grimes and her husband, David, have bicycled throughout Europe the past 15 years. She wants to take a trip to Holland this fall. There's something about those back roads and meeting new people, new adventures around each bend.

Next year will be the 25th year that Grimes has been cancer-free, The anniversary will pass without celebration because Grimes is too busy savoring life.

And that's the point Grimes wants to make: Cancer doesn't have to end your dreams. Indeed, with Grimes, it awakened them.

"I've lived two lives, really," she said. "The one before cancer and this one now."

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com