T

he Bike2Work community will hold a 511-kilometer bicycle tour from Jakarta to Yogyakarta during Feb. 4 to 9 to commemorate World Cancer Day on Saturday and raise awareness of leukemia.

Twelve participants — all members of the community — from 13 to 45-years-old will join the tour. One of them, 21-year-old Laksmita Artha Widya Rismaningsih, known by her friends as Mita, is a leukemia patient.

Mita, who discovered that she had Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) in September 2009, said that she wanted to use the tour to raise funds to help others like her.

“At first I was afraid of taking risks [in joining the tour]. However, I think this is a fantastic idea to raise public awareness of CML. So, I decided to join in,” she told a press conference.

According to Bike2Work chairman Toto Sugito, the tour had full support from the Health Ministry and the Youth and Sports Ministry.

“The Health Ministry is providing three doctors to accompany our team throughout the tour,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Tour participant Ramon Marcel Lalujang said that all of the tour’s participants, including Mita, had joined in numerous rally try-outs in Serpong, Banten.

“We have done numerous tryouts in the last month, each of them lasting between 30-40 kilometers,” he said. “As for Mita, she is an excellent cyclist. We knew this for sure. We wouldn’t have let her join the tour if this is not the case.”

“At first, after a health check in October, the doctor said Mita couldn’t go,” she said. However, another check in early January said otherwise. After a third medical check, held in the past week, gave Mita the go ahead, the team became even more eager to do the tour.

The tour will start on Saturday in front of the Health Ministry office on Jl. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta. Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih is scheduled to attend the tour’s start at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The first day of the tour will cover 65 kilometers from Jakarta to Bogor, where participants will stay for a night. On Sunday, all participants will be transported by cars to Bandung to pay a visit to a local cancer awareness community. Afterwards, they will be transported again to Garut, where they will spend the night.

“The route between Bogor and Garut will be too arduous for Mita. It would be far too risky for her health. We decided to use cars at this stage,” Ramon said.

The team will then traverse the route between Garut and Pameungpeuk on Monday, between Pameungpeuk and Pangandaran on Tuesday, and between Pangandaran and Kebumen on Wednesday, reaching Yogyakarta on Thursday.

The longest stages are Kebumen — Yogyakarta, consisting of 38 kilometers, and Pameungpeuk — Pangandaran, at 136 kilometers. (mim)