More than 26,000 cyclists around the country raised $3 million to fight childhood cancer this June through Great Cycle Challenge USA!

This month-long national event encourages riders of all ages to pedal against childhood cancer.  Each participant set a personal riding goal and encouraged donations from friends and family. In total, riders pedaled 1,946,846 miles.

Funds from Great Cycle Challenge USA support groundbreaking research to develop safer treatments and a cure for childhood cancer, including:

• An effort to perfect a breakthrough study that has cut the average engraftment recovery time after a cord blood transplant from 26 days to just 8 days. This means kids spend less time in the hospital after transplant.
• The exploration of using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to only cancer cells. By using targeted therapies and avoiding normal cells, kids could experience fewer side effects from toxic chemotherapies and treatments.
• A study aimed at understanding how leukemia cells interact with their surroundings, helping researchers discover ways to reduce the risk of relapse in kids.

In addition to supporting childhood cancer research at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, in partnership with Momcology, will also provide eight grants to Children’s Oncology Group hospitals nationwide in support of early phase clinical trials that bring new treatments to kids around the country.  Members of Momcology, a support group for mothers and primary caregivers of children with cancer rode more than 2,300 miles!

Kids like Danny are why we ride each June. Diagnosed with high risk t-cell lymphoblastic leukemia in September 2015, Danny has endured chemotherapy and spinal taps, but through all of it he has shown courage while cheering on GCC riders.

Thanks to the generosity of Great Cycle Challenge participants, teams and supporters, funds raised can help provide a brighter future for kids like Danny.