When 25-year-old Seth Bailey of Riverside was near the end of his life, he told his parents he was afraid of being forgotten.
Seth died in 2003 after battling with soft-tissue synovial sarcoma . After his death, his parents began a yearly bike ride to honor Bailey and raise money for sarcoma cancer research.
Far from being forgotten, the Courage Ride is in its 20th year of honoring Seth’s memory. In the last two decades, the event has raised more than $1 million and brought together a community of sarcoma survivors and their families, as well as doctors and researchers working to understand this cancer.
Sarcoma is a rare and aggressive type of cancer that makes up 1% of cancer diagnoses.
“When they’re diagnosed with sarcoma, many times, it’s the first time they’ve ever even heard of the word,” said Dr. Ben Miller, a board medical adviser for Courage Ride and co-leader of the Sarcoma Multidisciplinary Oncology Group (MOG) at the University of Iowa.
Additionally, there are more than 50 different subtypes of sarcoma impacting bones, fat blood vessels and the tissue surrounding the nerves.