CancerFree Kids hosts 100-mile challenge

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A local non-profit is asking people to participate in a 100-mile challenge for Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.

For every mile of exercise, participants are asked to donate $1 to CancerFree Kids to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

“You can bike, you can jog you can roller-skate, do yoga,” CancerFree Kids Marketing Manager Cari Speed said. “We have conversions if you can’t do anything that’s normally tracked in miles.”

Speed says every dollar raised funds research at Nationwide Hospital in Columbus or Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“CancerFree Kids is located in Loveland,” Speed explained. “We were founded in 2002 and our mission is to eradicate cancer as a life threatening disease in children.”

One person who is participating in the challenge is Sarah Conley, who is biking with Enerfab, a corporate construction and maintenance company.

“You don’t really think about it unless it hits your family or you know somebody personally,” Conley explained. “You don’t think about it until you know somebody close and you know the importance of it to save a life. No amount of money is too small to save a life if you’re trying to help somebody.”

This year, Conley has a goal to ride 200 miles on her bike this month.

“I’m a cancer survivor so anything to do with helping cancer research I try to do,” Conley said. “Since it’s pediatric cancer awareness month we have some Enerfab employees that lost a grandson to pediatric cancer.”

Only 4% of cancer research goes to pediatric cancer and most of that it to late stage cancer. While funds are largely neglected, the non-profit is hoping to raise $200,000 this month between individual and corporate teams.

“It’s a fun competition, everybody wins, children win,” Conley said.

If you would like to join the challenge, you can find more information here.

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