We road another 100+ miles today from Hanover, VA, crossing into Maryland at the Potomac River in Morgan Town, crossing back into VA at Alexandrea, and back over the Potomac again to end at Capitol Hill in Washington DC. A beautiful end to the first chapter of the BikeBreatheBelieve advocacy campaign for lung cancer awareness. David and I said good bye to our amazing Velofix support team, put our bikes in the car and are driving the rest of the way to Princeton—a safer option than biking through the Northeast Megalopolis.
It is the end of this journey but as they say, every end marks a new beginning. Though I will be resuming my Material Culture work (from home for the time being) and otherwise assuming my pre ride life as modified by COVID-19, I will also be brainstorming chapter 2 in my advocacy efforts. Many of you asked me specifically over the past few weeks whether there was an ultimate objective to the advocacy and honestly the goal was just to make more people aware of how prevalent and devastating lung cancer is and that anyone with lungs is at risk. Even though much of my messaging was lost amid the COVID-19 crisis, I am grateful that we reached the number of people we did and am hoping you will continue to help by sharing the facts about lung cancer in your communities. Education is always the first step. Stay tuned for more as I strategize phase 2 of the mission which may, very well, have me pick up where I left off today, on the steps of Capitol Hill :)
In the meantime, we will continue to make dedications to those who face or have faced lung cancer and I will continue to post updates on life off the bike. I welcome your thoughts on how best to move the mission forward and would ask that you please send them via the website email: info@bikebreathebelieve.org.
Together we can make a difference. One step at a time. With infinite gratitude, Isabella