Cycling for Christoforos

Last June, when I decided to participate in "Giro Ciclistico delle Repubbliche Marinare" (a 2,200 km loop in Italy), a kid was diagnosed with a rare and highly aggressive brain tumor, the so called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (D.I.P.G.). The kid was only 4.5 years old.

D.I.P.G. afflicts kids between the ages of 4 - 10 years. It is inoperable and the conventional treatments (such as chemotherapy and radiation) are ineffective and simply extend kid's life for a couple of months. Its growth rate is doubled every month and the survival rate is about 9 months with a maximum of 12 months. These facts make D.I.P.G. one of the most devastating pediatric cancers.

Due to the scarcity of this type of cancer, the drug industry does not invest enough money for research because the investment would not be viable. Thus, the survival rates have not improved much over the last decades.

Christoforos' family after an extensive research in clinics all around the world, found a clinic in Mexico (Instituto de Oncologia Intervencionista) that uses an innovating and promising treatment (intraarterial chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy) which has shown great results. According to the doctors the kid would need 10 therapies with a cost of €350,000. The family moved on Mexico and after a great effort and with the help of relatives, friends and colleagues doing many campaigns managed to raise the amount needed.

After all these therapies the examinations shown that the tumor has been reduced to less than 50%. There is still cancer activity in his brain and he needs more therapies. Christoforos has already done few more therapies and still needs our support to continue fighting the beast.

My goal to help Christoforos is to raise €1 for every km I ride in Italy and I'm asking you to support my campaign. Every donation is valuable for the family.

All the funds will go straight to Christoforos therapies. All the expenses for the ride will be covered by me.

I wish you all the best to you and your families.

Regards

Nick

For more information see below.

www.facebook.com/teamchristoforos/