Bruce Springsteen sent a pre-recorded video message to the Pan-Mass Challenge, an annual charity bike ride raising money for cancer research and treatment at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, revealing that his wife and E Street Band bandmate Patti Scialfa has been treated there for multiple myeloma. The message, played at the event on Friday night, saw Springsteen praise the organisation's decades of fundraising work and highlight the personal importance of medical research, before he performed an acoustic version of "Born to Run."

Springsteen said Scialfa had been living with the blood cancer for more than eight years but is now in remission, describing how the couple had learned that "hope has a face" through the doctors and nurses who cared for her. He noted that PMC founder Billy Starr had first invited him to take part in the ride back in 1984, meaning his virtual appearance came some 42 years later. Scialfa first disclosed her 2018 diagnosis publicly in the 2024 documentary "Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band," in which she explained the illness had forced her to significantly scale back touring.