This month, over 230 cyclists set out from Cannon Beach, Oregon, on a 3,000-mile route across the country to Long Branch, New Jersey. Their goal, aside from simply finishing the ride, was to raise $1 million for the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
All of these athletes are employees of the medical company Bristol Myers Squibb. Many are cancer survivors themselves; others have been impacted by cancer.
For Christy Williams of Davidson, North Carolina, the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer Ride is a celebration of five consecutive clean scans. She was diagnosed with colon cancer just after she turned 40. What they thought was a small tumor had actually metastasized to her liver, giving her less than a 5 percent chance of survival. But even with stage 4 cancer, this wife and mom refused to give up!
Christy had two surgeries and 12 rounds of chemotherapy, and she’s finally in remission. She’s been training for months ahead of the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer Ride, and now she’s putting her body to the test to increase the odds of survival for others like her.
“Training for an endurance event is very similar to the cancer journey, you just have to power on day by day and mile by mile,” she explained.
“This ride will lead to more breakthroughs in cancer research, it represents more than just myself, more than just BMS, but patients all over the world,” she added.
If you’d like to contribute to Christy’s fundraiser, you can do so by clicking here.
Mark DeLong of Vancouver, Washington, is another BMS employee who committed to the ride. Mark not only beat cancer once himself, but he is also riding in honor of his son Peter. Peter was just 16 when a sports injury landed him in an ER. When doctors discovered that the teen had Ewing sarcoma, his family’s lives changed in an instant.
Two years later, Peter lost his fight with cancer, but he left behind a lasting legacy. Mark and his wife started a nonprofit in Peter’s name, and each year, the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer ride gives the grieving dad a chance to turn his heartbreak into help for others who are going through a cancer diagnosis. You can click here to donate to Mark’s fundraising campaign.
It takes five months of dedicated training for riders to build up the endurance they need to travel thousands of miles. There are 18 teams of riders this year, and they’re asking for donations to sponsor their trips.
Bristol Myers Squibb has committed to matching these donations dollar-for-dollar, up to half a million dollars. So if the riders meet their goal, that’s $1 million going to the V Foundation!
The V Foundation supports groundbreaking research that aims to make a profound difference for cancer patients and their families.
Since the start of the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer rides, BMS employees have raised over $7.15 million for cancer research. Just about everyone’s life has been touched by cancer in some way. Together, we can build hope for a cure through research.
Share this story to tell your friends about the C2C4C rides. Every dollar will help the riders reach their goal!
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