{"id":61045,"date":"2012-06-15T14:15:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=61045"},"modified":"2012-06-15T14:18:30","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:18:30","slug":"students-hope-4000-mile-bike-path-leads-to-leukemia-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/06\/students-hope-4000-mile-bike-path-leads-to-leukemia-cure\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Hope 4,000-mile Bike Path Leads to Leukemia Cure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graduate<\/a>
Graduate student (Storrs) Nate Windon (center) and rising first-year medical students Melina Benson and Sean Burn make up the Coast to Coast for a Cure 2012 team. (David Burn for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three UConn students are getting ready to spend the summer bicycling 4,000 miles across the country to raise money for Lea\u2019s Foundation for Leukemia Research.<\/p>\n

\n

Gearing Up to Pedal Coast to Coast for a Cure<\/h4>\n

Aired on WTIC NewsTalk 1080 and 96.5 TIC-FM, June 3, 2012<\/em>
\n
\nListen to the broadcast ><\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Melina Benson and Sean Burn, who just finished their first year at the UConn School of Medicine, and Nate Windon, who\u2019s pursuing a graduate English degree in Storrs, are flying to San Francisco Tuesday,<\/strong> June 19<\/strong>. Once their bikes are assembled, they\u2019ll dip their wheels in the Pacific Ocean to mark the symbolic start of Coast to Coast for a Cure, which has become an annual UConn School of Medicine tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an endurance sports junkie and so this trip is like a dream come true. I am also motivated to raise money to support such a great cause,\u201d Burn says, \u201cLea\u2019s Foundation is a great organization dedicated to ending the suffering of those with hematologic cancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hartford nonprofit raises money to further the research toward treatments and cures for leukemia and other blood disorders such as lymphoma, Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Its $1.25 million pledge to the UConn Health Center led to the establishment in 2007 of the Lea\u2019s Foundation Center for Hematologic Disorders<\/a> in the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center. Lea\u2019s Foundation also provides financial support to families of patients burdened with the high costs of care associated with these illnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t separate my desire to support the outstanding work of Lea\u2019s Foundation from my desire for adventure,\u201d Benson says. \u201cCycling is an amazing way to see a country, and there is a lot of the U.S. that I haven\u2019t seen yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their cycling experience varies: Benson says she doesn\u2019t have much at all. Burn runs marathons and says he got into road cycling a few years ago. Windon did a cycling tour in Montana and Wyoming last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great adventure and, like all great adventures, it entails both a challenging journey and a clear ambition, which is raising money for Lea\u2019s Foundation,\u201d Windon says. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for the time we have; it\u2019s more of an opportunity than a sacrifice in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coast to Coast for a Cure goes back to 2006<\/a>, when first-year students Jeremiah Tracy and Ben Ristau decided they would spend their last free summer pedaling from California to Connecticut. The trek was dedicated to the memory of Tracy\u2019s mother, who had a rare form of leukemia. Each year since, a different group of students, mostly first-year medical students, has undertaken the same journey, raising tens of thousands of dollars for Lea\u2019s Foundation.<\/p>\n

Two of this year\u2019s riders have relatives who\u2019ve been diagnosed with blood disorders.<\/p>\n

Like teams before them, the 2012 riders are keeping a blog that they\u2019ll update when time and technology permit along the way: http:\/\/coasttocoastforacure2012.blogspot.com\/<\/a>. The blog includes a link to the Lea\u2019s Foundation page<\/a> for anyone interested in supporting this year\u2019s ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and be outside all summer,\u201d Benson says. \u201cI hope my body holds up to the ride!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

<\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow the <\/em>UConn Health Center<\/em><\/a> on <\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two UConn medical students and a graduate student are preparing to embark on a cross-country bicycle trek to raise money for leukemia research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":61499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-61045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 10:30:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61045"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61507,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61045\/revisions\/61507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/61499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61045"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=61045"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=61045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}