Cycle for Survival – an indoor, relay-style cycling event that lets you team up with friends, family or co-workers to raise money for rare cancer research – may be the answer to beating your winter workout blahs while supporting a worthy cause. Here’s how it works: Cycle for Survival is a four-hour cycling event. Each team has four to eight members per bike, and each registered bike fundraises a minimum of $1,000. Team members cycle in shifts throughout the event. This year there are events in February at Equinox gyms in New York City, Long Island, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. If you are not in one of these cities, you can sign up to cycle in a different location. So far, the money raised from Cycle for Survival has funded multiple clinical trials and research studies and has raised more than $11 million. Rare cancers make up 50 percent of all cancer cases in the U.S. and include pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, brain cancer, all pediatric cancers and melanoma, to name a few. A cancer is considered rare if there are fewer than 200,000 total cases in the U.S. per year, says Dr. Gary Schwartz, chief of Melanoma and Sarcoma Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Though deadly, these rare cancers don’t get the funding the more common cancers get, says Schwartz. This year, the goal is to raise more than $4.7 million, which is the amount the fundraiser raised last year, says Dave Linn, a co-founder of Cycle for Survival. Every dollar raised goes toward research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The idea for this event started after Jennifer Goodman Linn (above) was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare type of tumor. While going through therapy, she enjoyed cycling and credited her emotional health to the trainers at Equinox, says Dave, who was Jen’s husband. Dave says Jen wanted to give back to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where she was being treated, so she organized a small indoor cycling event in 2007 and raised $250,000 in the first year. The second year they raised $650,000. Realizing the event’s potential, Dave and Jen took their idea to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Cycle for Survival started to expand. Jen passed away this past July, but Dave says he will keep the event running. “As soon as you walk in the door (at Cycle for Survival) there’s an amazing feeling of hope,” Dave says. “Whether you pedal hard or hardly pedal, this is the perfect event.” You see vibrant colors – yellows, oranges, reds and blues – that symbolize hope and energy, he added. Schwartz also cycles to support the cause. “It’s very emotional,” Schwartz says. “You really feel like you’re working for a major goal. You participate, and you’re never quite the same again.” Sign up today or make a donation at cycleforsurvival.org.
