Riding for Cancer 2010

I’ll be riding my bike with a little more purpose in the coming months as I start preparing for a ride from Albany to Perth this November.

The ride follows the success of last year’s ride from Perth to Albany.

Last Year’s Ride

In February 2009 my wife’s sister passed away at the age of 41 from cancer.

In the weeks leading up to her death I was throwing an idea around for a bike ride from Perth to Albany. The ride would take my morning radio programme on the road to broadcast from a different town each day.

I wanted to give people who had been touched by cancer a chance to tell their story. Whether they’d lost a loved one or survived cancer, I wanted people to have the opportunity to break the silence and let people know that they’ve been through some deep waters. I wanted others who have been touched by cancer to know they’re not alone.

That ride happened in October last year and was very successful in so many ways.

As well as giving people opportunity to tell their story we raised around $15 000 for Cancer Council Western Australia.

Ride for Cancer 2010

So now we’re doing it all over again but in the reverse order. We’ll be cycling from Albany to Perth with the event taking place from the 13th to the 20th of November.

I have a number of cyclists ready to take part and once again I’ll broadcast my radio programme each morning before hopping onto my bike just after midday to cycle to the next town.

The task now is to finalise the team of cyclists and support crew. I’m hoping that we’ll have around ten to twelve riders. We’ll be followed by support vehicles which will carry all our gear.

If you’re part of a business that would like to partner with us on the journey, I’m looking for some sponsors for the cycling jerseys. There are different levels of sponsorship for various sized logos on the jerseys.

I also need your story. Have you been touched by cancer? Are you battling cancer now or beaten it in the past? Does a loved one have cancer? Have you lost a friend? If you’d rather not leave your story in the comments section of this post, you can go to my contact page and send me an email.

Sometime soon I’ll let you know how you can donate to Cancer Council Western Australia in support of the ride.



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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