Bike expedition across Iceland raises awareness of rare blood cancer

A cycling expedition kicks off across Iceland today to help raise awareness and hopefully help find a cure for a rare blood disease. Yelak Biru was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer, multiple myeloma, in his 20s, while studying at the University of North Texas. 

"They also say that the life expectancy of that cancer was two to three years, and I will definitely be dead before I was 30. I had recently immigrated at that time from Ethiopia, and I was going through graduate school, as I mentioned, and it was really a mix of thinking I'm actually going to be dead to no way, I'm actually going to fight this as much as I can and live as long as I can with the utmost quality of life as I can," says Yelak. 

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He is now in his 50s and beat the odds, but he has been in and out of remission, undergoing treatment on a regular basis. He wanted to change that not only for himself but others, so, he became President and CEO of the International Myeloma Foundation or IMF to raise awareness and funds to find a cure.  

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So, what is this disease? Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that forms in the white blood cells known as plasma cells. For the typical person, plasma cells help fight infections by making antibodies to attack germs. It's a different story for people who have multiple myeloma, because cancerous plasma cells build up in their bone marrow.

Yelak is now visiting Iceland to host a 3-day, 2-night bike expedition. "It's going to be very treacherous. We have 12 people, patients, doctors, caregivers, and IMF team members that will be joining this team and raising funds to be able to fund the research initiatives," states Yelak. They hope to raise at least $250,000 during the mission. It lasts through September first, just in time to kick-off Blood Cancer Awareness Month.