850km bike ride to raise cancer awareness
Just a week before Lana Grew began a ride to honour her aunt’s fight against ovarian cancer, her aunt died from the disease.
Grew stopped in Palmerston North on Monday on day five of Angela’s Ride, her 850-kilometre cycle ride from her home in Auckland to her home town Nelson to raise money and awareness for ovarian cancer.
Angela was Grew’s aunt who suffered from the disease for more than five years and died two weeks ago in Nelson.
‘‘I was down in Nelson over Easter and felt pretty helpless,’’ Grew said. ‘‘She was getting a lot worse and it sort of hit me for six and I saw the effect it was having on everyone around her. I just wanted to do something to help so I figured I could do something.’’
Grew planned her nine-day ride in just four weeks with the hope of reaching Angela in Nelson on Friday but Angela died on May 5.
‘‘She was hoping to be at the finish line and we were all hoping she’d be there but it all took over very quickly,’’ Grew said.
After five days cycling and 665km, with husband Ben as support crew, Grew was going well.
‘‘It’s not too bad, the big days are done so I’m glad they’re over. My legs are sore and my bum’s really sore but it’s not actually going too bad.
‘‘The whole point is it’s a challenge and no matter how hard I’m finding it, it’s nothing compared to what people suffering from cancer are finding. So I’m just trying to keep that in the back of my mind as a motive the whole time.’’
She had a goal of raising $5000 to go towards research for an ovarian cancer screening test and has already raised $6500.