A woman pedaled a stationary bicycle in front of a crowded cycling room at Equinox of Roslyn on Sunday and directed encouraging words to fellow riders keeping pace with the beat of techno music that blared from a set of overhead speakers.
“Keep it up,” she called out. “Good job. We’re almost there.”
Noon was fast approaching. Another session of the fifth Cycle For Survival fundraiser at the Roslyn location was nearing its conclusion.
When the group finished, the event’s co-founder Dave Linn took a microphone, thanked the cyclists wiping the sweat from their brows and gave them a bit of news.
At Equinox locations in 13 cities across America, with more than 20,000 participants pedaling along to techno music and the words of friendly trainers, more than $11 million had so far been raised to research rare cancers and clinical trials of potential treatments.
“It’s no longer a matter of if we’re going to beat this disease, but when,” he said.
Linn and his wife Jennifer Goodman Linn founded the event in 2007, three years after she was diagnosed with sarcoma.
Though Jennifer died in 2011, Cycle For Survival events have raised more than $60 million to benefit Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, rated the No. 1 hospital for cancer care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.
Sloan Kettering owns and operates Cycle for Survival. Equinox, with 73 locations throughout the country, acts as the initiative’s founding partner.
Fundraising for this year’s event will continue through March, event organizers said.
Riders posted messages of good luck on bulletin boards set up around the facility. Health screenings were conducted. Oversized sunglasses were handed out and worn.
One participant, Neil Kaufman, said he rode in honor of his mother and mother-in-law, who each battled cancer in their lives.
Dr. Ross Levine, a physician and cancer researcher at Sloan Kettering, said the event has helped fund his work, which has included the production of a drug to fight rare cancers.
“I’ve given this speech all over the country, but I mean it every time,” he told the riders. “You are the ones who have made all this possible.”
