SOUTH BRUNSWICK – The Amy Feiman Behar Foundation for Breast Cancer Awareness is sponsoring its ninth annual Bike Ride for Amy next month, having added the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (RCINJ) as a new partner to help fulfill its mission of supporting Central New Jersey women who do not have the financial means to receive potentially life-saving early breast cancer detection measures.
“Breast cancer can run in families due to mutated genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2,” said Arie Behar, president of The Amy Foundation, which he created and named for his wife, who died of breast cancer in March 2007 at age 49. “The benefit of early detection and possible prevention of this devastating disease is especially heightened for women with a family history of BRCA genes. Our support will enable these women to proactively manage their risk for breast cancer.”
The Bike Ride for Amy on June 5 is an important fundraising event for the foundation. It features a relatively flat 15-mile, a flat 25-mile, a hilly 35-mile and a more challenging 50-mile route, which originate and end at South Brunswick High School, 750 Ridge Road, Monmouth Junction, after winding through picturesque landscapes in Middlesex and Somerset counties.
The ride starts at 8 a.m. with check-in at 7 a.m. This year, breakfast and lunch will be available to all riders and beverages and snacks will be provided at the start of the ride and at rest stops along each of the routes.
The Amy Foundation has supported the cost of annual screening mammograms for uninsured and underinsured women, the cost of diagnostic ultrasounds for those women whose screenings may suggest cancer and now through the partnership with RCINJ in New Brunswick, the cost of testing for women at high genetic risk for breast cancer.
The Amy Foundation-supported mammograms and diagnostic ultrasounds are made possible through partnerships and programs that began with Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, and later expanded to include Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and the Princeton HealthCare System in Plainsboro.
“We are delighted to also now be partnering with RCINJ,” Behar said. “They are renowned for the work they do and as many as 8 percent of the women they see who are need of genetic testing have no health insurance.”
Since its inception, The Amy Foundation has raised approximately $550,000 and helped more than 3,000 women who are unable to afford mammograms and diagnostic procedures to detect breast cancer early, when it is most treatable. Funds are raised through two major community events, the Bike Ride for Amy in the spring and the Walk for Diane in the fall, as well as through gifts and grants received from individuals, corporations, private foundations, organizations and associations.
Details for the ride are a registration fee of $75 for the 35- and 50-mile rides and a $25 fee for the 15- and 25-mile rides, which includes a riding jersey for the longer riders and a t-shirt for the shorter route riders.
All riders should raise a minimum of $140, which is equivalent to the cost of a single mammogram for an uninsured woman.
Halter’s Cycles of Skillman will be available onsite to help any riders who might find themselves in need of mechanical assistance.
Greater Media radio station WMGQ Magic 98.3 FM will be on site providing music, games and prizes.
All riders should raise a minimum of $140, which is equivalent to the cost of a single mammogram for an uninsured woman.
To register and fundraise online, visit www.theamyfoundation.org.
