85-year-old beats cancer, celebrates with a ride on her grandson's motorcycle

COAL TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A family's matriarch reached her goal of beating cancer - for the second time - and celebrated with a wild ride on a motorcycle.

Janet Bitterman said her goal to ride with her grandson pushed her through difficult cancer treatment.

Bitterman strapped on a helmet, hopped on a Harley and took off on a ride that was a year in the making.

"I had a lot of things go wrong with me," Bitterman said. "I was tired. I lost my appetite, sense of smell. I lost a tremendous amount of weight. My goal was to get better. This is what I was striving for."

Bitterman was battling colon cancer to get to this ride. Following a year of treatments, she is officially cancer-free, the second time she's beaten the disease.

"It was her motivation to fight her battle and get through all of her chemo," Bitterman's daughter Brenda Yoder said. "Every time she told someone her story, her doctors, her nurses, everybody, everyone laughed and thought it was a great story. It was her inspiration."

"Couldn't imagine life without her," Bitterman's grandson Gary Steinhart said. "She's pretty awesome. She's just great."

For about an hour, Janet and her grandson drove through the back roads of Northumberland County with her family in tow.

"Last year was a wasted year of my life," Bitterman said. "I couldn't do anything inside or outside. This year, I haven't been able to do that much, but I'm getting stronger and getting more pep back to me."