Bad weather on Oct. 2 forced the cancellation of this year's in-person Velocity, Columbia's annual cycling fundraiser, but participants organized their own bike rides, walks, and personal physical challenges to raise more than $1.1 million for cancer research and patient care at Columbia.
Velocity participants celebrated their successes and shared their inspirations on Nov. 16 at a delayed Velocity Finish Line Festival in the Vagelos Education Center.
"Our patients and their families... give so much of themselves to fundraise for research and patient services at our cancer center-not for their own benefit, but for others in the same circumstances."
Since 2017, cancer survivors, family, friends, nurses, doctors, and researchers have participated in Velocity, Columbia's Ride to End Cancer, and raised more than $7 million to fuel innovative research and spread hope and love to those facing cancer.
Anil Rustgi, MD, director of Columbia's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, thanked all who participated in Velocity and their commitment to the cancer center: "You continue to fuel innovative lifesaving research and, most importantly, translate that into patient care. You've proved over and over again that the Velocity community is unstoppable."
Cancer survivor Sam Cundiff and his wife, Terri, traveled from their home in Virginia to attend the festival; the two decided to participate in this year's Velocity for the first time in recognition of Sam's lifesaving surgery performed by Columbia's Tomoaki Kato, MD, the Edwin C. and Anne K. Weiskopf Professor of Surgical Oncology at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
