I’ll be honest—this isn’t personal for me in the way it is for many others.

I haven’t had a close family member go through cancer. But through my work in biomedical engineering, I spend a lot of time thinking about how we improve patient care and outcomes.  I also get to see it firsthand through our PhD students, who are doing incredible work to develop new technologies that can make a real difference.

At some point, I realized it’s easy to keep that impact at a distance.  So this is my way of stepping a little closer.

I’m running a 5K—not because it’s easy for me, but because it isn’t.  As many of you know, cycling is my comfort zone. Running is not. I’m a bigger guy, and this pushes me well outside of that comfort zone.

And that’s kind of the point.

This is something small that’s hard for me—done in support of people facing something much harder, and in support of the students and researchers working to improve what’s possible.

Please help me in raising awareness and funds for C.U.R.E. Childhood Cancer Association. C.U.R.E. provides direct support to families who have a child with cancer or chronic blood disorder. Every dollar truly makes a difference.

If you’re willing to support the cause, I’d really appreciate it.

Or—if you’d rather—join our team and do the 5K with us.