I blogged several times about two dear friends of mine from business school - Dave Linn and his wife Jen Goodman Linn who blogged at youfearless.com
Jen was 33 when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called a sarcoma. You can read my first blog post about Jen Goodman Linn here.
Jen was fanatic about exercise. In 2007, she started an organization called Cycle for Survival which is a relay style spinning event at Eqiunox in NYC to raise money for orphan cancer research. What is an 'orphan cancer'? An orphan cancer is a cancer which is not one of the most common cancers. Here is a list of the most common forms of cancer. Based on my discussions with Jen and Dave, the most common forms of cancer receive the vast majority of government and industry funding, leading to greater strides in research. Orphan cancers are less prevalent, but still affect thousands of people every year. Since orphan cancers are less prevalent, there is limited funding and few organized groups organizing action and fund raising.
Cycle for Survival was founded by Jen & Dave in 2007 to raise money for orphan cancer research at New York's Sloan-Kettering Center. To-date, Cycle for Survival has raised more than $9m for cancer research and 100% of the donations go to funding research. Sloan-Kettering provides all the administration and overhead.
In March of 2011, Jen turned 40 years old. Jen's birthday dance is one of my favorite videos on YouTube.
After battling cancer for 7 years, Fearless Jen passed away on July 20th, 2011. She was an amazing woman. She was an amazing blogger. A true inspiration for me. Take some time to read through her blog on YouFearless.
Cycle for Survival 2012 is being held again on February 4th, 2012 on Long Island, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, February 11th in New York City and Chicago and February 12th in Washington DC. Dave had a nice write-up in the Huffington Post recently as well.
On February 4th, a group of us from school are converging on San Francisco to celebrate Jen's life, ride and raise money for Cycle for Survival, and have a lot of fun. Dave Linn is flying out from New York to be with us.
If you are interested in helping fund orphan cancer research, please consider a donation to Cycle for Survival. Click here to make a donation to our team.
Watch for Cycle for Survival on the news in San Francisco!
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