Australian Opera2Parliament charity ride has unexpected origin

The Opera2Parliament bicycle charity ride, which benefits Lymphoma Australia, just wrapped up its second annual ride, a bike ride from Sydney to Canberra's Parliament House, and this year alone raised about $50,000 for the fight against lymphoma. But were it not for a fluke discovery last year, the charity ride may never have come about.

It began last year, when 25-year-old Jovan Pejic, his brother Nikola, and a friend decided to bicycle from Sydney to Canberra for no better reason than the challenge.

In the lead-up to their ride, Pejic noticed a lump in his groin. He ignored it until he could ignore it no longer. Three days before their ride was to commence, he got word from his doctor than he had follicular lymphoma, an indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and one of the most frequently diagnosed NHLs. His firs tthoughts were to cancel the bike ride.

Nikola Pejic thought they should instead try to turn it into something to benefit people with lymphoma, and suddenly, a new charity bike ride was born.

Pejic himself, an elite judo athlete, recently finished radiation treatments. Prior to his diagnosis he was in outstanding shape, which he says is why he ignored the lump.

Source: Canberra Times