15 July 2013
This October I will ride my bike from the ocean to the mountains and back to promote cancer research and healthier living. It’s a two-day, 180 mile trek that pays tribute to the stamina of current, past, and future cancer patients. Concurrently, it has the very literal purpose of raising critical funds for cancer research here in San Diego, benefitting the C3 Initiative of the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and the Salk Institute.
My fundraising page can be found here.
ETHOS AND RATIONALE
Everyone should have a chance to live a happy, productive life. We can do a lot to promote healthier, happier living regardless of life circumstances. We all have different ways we promote this, but a few ways I’ve personally chosen are through cancer research, cancer education, and cycling.
In this blog I’ve written a lot about the established and emerging science surrounding the disease, but I want to make it clear that the scientific side of things is just one aspect of the battle against cancer, which is just one initiative toward more healthy, productive lives for everyone. Even the complete absence of disease is not health.
I’m a big fan of bikes and of cycling. I commute to work almost every day via bicycle. Most errands I run (groceries, bank, visiting nearby research institutions) are also conducted using myself as the motor. There is much I could write about the extra hours per week in the fresh air and rarely finding myself in traffic or without parking, or the extra exercise, or the money I save on gasoline, wear and tear on my truck, and on auto insurance. But for now, I will suffice to say that I love incorporating the bicycle to wherever I can in my life, and I enjoy a healthier, happier lifestyle because of it. These experiences and positive life benefits are things I wish I could share with more people. And if you’re reading this and I could be ANY assistance with getting you on a bike, please contact me. I would love to be of help to you, dear reader.
I’ve also written a bit about the anti-cancer effects of exercise and I see inactivity as a problem. I also see metabolic disease (and its other manifestations of obesity and diabetes) reaching far beyond the cancer problem as well; collectively they put a severe burden on individuals, families, and society.
Perhaps it is not surprising that when I found out about the inaugural Pedal the Cause I could not help but immediately sign up.
I often joke that I am a bit of a bastard child between two of the institutions. I am in the last year of my doctoral research as part of the Sanford-Burnham School of Biomedical Sciences and I currently spend most of my time in the lab of my co-advisor at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center. I can attest to the world-class research conducted at both institutions, and I will save you (for now) the lauded praise for the amazing scientists and physicians I’ve gotten to know and work with. The collaborative research community we have here in San Diego is phenomenal on so many levels, and I am confident that donations will go to very good use.
Again, my fundraising page can be found here and I would be both grateful and honored if you could help me in this initiative.
Best, Ryon