Fundraising for Texas 4000

Texas 4000 for Cancer · 17 February 2022
A Little About Me
Hi y'all, thanks for taking some time to learn about me!
My name is Lucky and I'm a senior Business Honors and Marketing major with a minor in Sociology. I'm interested in the overlap between healthcare equity and social impact, and am biking from Austin to Alaska next summer to raise awareness and fundraise for cancer research and support services.
If you or someone close to you has ever been affected by cancer, I would love to sit down and talk about your experiences sometime. Please don't hesitate to reach out! There's so much to learn from others, and I'm looking forward to bringing these stories with me on my ride :)
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Why I Ride
My journey with T4K actually began back in my freshman year. I saw them tabling on Speedway, and as someone interested in healthcare I thought their annual ride + mission was absolutely wonderful (and also a bit hard to believe haha). Although I wasn't able to join at that time, it also happened to be the same semester I took my first sociology course, a class that sparked my interest in healthcare infrastructure and reform in the United States.
When we think of healthcare, we see a lot of problems. High costs, low accessibility, and variable quality are some of the more high-level issues faced by those who need the system the most. As I continued on my academic journey, however, I soon learned about the problems hidden within the problem: the overlooked extent of inequities in the healthcare system and the complicated roots of historically-driven systemic issues. Eventually, I found myself from wanting to go to medical school to working in healthcare administration instead, in pursuit of bettering these challenges.
So back to T4K. Why do I ride? Well, cancer is absolutely no stranger to my areas of interest. I want to ride for those affected by cancer that don't get as much attention as they should, the minority populations who face significant medical disparities due to lack of healthcare accessibility or attention. Those who are medicalized by physicians, those who are historically undertreated, those that can't afford yearly screenings, or don't receive appropriate pain medication during their already difficult journey. The list goes on and on.
I believe that although fighting cancer can be an intimidating and strenuous challenge in and of itself, we should never forget the additional burdens some of us face.
During my ride I hope to help bring these conversations and learnings from the Forty Acres to others across the country. I can't wait, and am so so so thankful for your support on this journey!
To Alaska and Back,
Lucky
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