"I was given a less than 1% chance of ever walking again," said cancer survivor Jamie Alamillo. "So as soon as I was able to walk again I started - I started biking, doing marathons, half marathons, Iron Mans and triathlons."
Alamillo was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an aggressive cancer that causes cancer to form in plasma cells, on Nov. 19, 2013. Three days later he went into surgery where he was told he was never going to walk again.
He underwent 37 rounds of chemotherapy and 10 rounds of radiation.
Defying the odds, Alamillo regained the ability to walk through a long and determined journey of physical therapy.
In celebration of being able to do what he once thought he would never do again, Alamillo participated in a 100-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe in June of 2015.
"I rode on and off recreationally and riding just kind of put me at ease of the disease," said Alamillo. "It didn't feel like I had disease."
Almost eight years later, he is biking again at Lake Tahoe. This time it is 549 miles to the lake from Santa Clarita.
Eight days, nine riders - all to raise awareness for the various types of cancers that exist.
"A lot of people don't know the different types of blood cancer that's out there," said Alamillo. "My main thing was just to bring awareness towards blood cancers, and of course, any type of cancers."
TOUR2CURE is Alamillo's way to help others beat the odds, like he did, through raising money for cancer research and one day finding a cure, one bike ride at a time.
"When I'm biking, there's just this fire inside of me that I want to bike and I want to just promote and do the advocacy towards some blood cancers and raise money, raise money for cancer research," said Alamillo.
Since TOUR2CURE's formation in 2019, his team has raised over $850,000 towards their mission.
The Lake Tahoe ride's proceeds are going towards the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
TOUR2CURE began the Lake Tahoe ride on May 25 with a goal of $5,000 and Alamillo's personal goal of raising $1 million by the end of 2023. At the time of this publication, they have currently raised $3,360 for this ride.
For those wishing to donate, visit bit.ly/42fJT4u.
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