Childhood Cancer Survivors take part in Bike Ride through Italian Countryside

On the occasion of a professional bike race involving the top cyclists in Italy, ‘Granfondo fizik’, a special race for paediatric survivors took place on 06 May 2012 in the beautiful Marostica, an hour away from Venice. As part of the dissemination activities of the EU-funded Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) project PanCareSurFup (PanCare Childhood and Adolescent Cancer Survivor Care and Follow-Up Studies – www.pancaresurfup.eu), ‘The Race of Brave Bikers’ saw the participation of 30 young cancer survivors from across Europe, on a special 10km route and even longer for several participants. The event has been led by project dissemination leader Prof. Momcilo Jankovic and sponsorship was led by NEAR (an Italian company dealing with corporate social responsibility – www.neargroup.it)   and Fi’zi:k (an Italian company specialised in suppliers for professional cyclists – http://www.fizik.it/).

 

The event aimed to raise awareness of the increasing number of paediatric cancer survivors in Europe, due to successful cure rates. The race involved several young people who have been able to overcome cancer and, today, live a normal life. The race demonstrated not only their immense courage, but also on the importance of optimum quality-of-life for the many survivors, and the need to promote research studies into late effects of the complex paediatric cancer treatment.

 

On the previous day, 05 May, a roundtable was organised, with experts and doctors from leading European hospitals explaining their role in the project to several stakeholders including survivors, to promote the message that every European childhood cancer survivor deserves access to the best possible care and better long-term health.

 

More information:

PanCare SurFup project

Race of the Brave Bikers (in Italian)

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