Gina Soto found blood in the toilet bowl after using the bathroom and rushed to the doctor. The Las Vegas resident was diagnosed with Stage 3B colorectal cancer.
She was at the top of her career, Soto said, and was going through fertility treatments to have kids with her husband. That all stopped after the diagnosis.
Soto immediately began bouncing between radiation and chemotherapy, and then had surgery to remove the tumor.
That was about seven years ago.
Now, long past those sessions of radiation and chemotherapy, the 42-year-old Soto is helping raise awareness for cancer through a cross-country bike ride.
She is part of a 126-person effort to raise funding for cancer research during the Coast 2 Coast 4 Cancer cross-country ride this week — a roughly 225-mile stretch over three days from Denver to Topeka, Kan., that ends today.
“It was alarming because I was 35 years old (and) you don’t think that at 35 you would get colorectal cancer,” Soto said. “Knowing that I went through it and I survived, I just wanted to create some awareness around, ‘Hey, this can happen especially to younger people (so) pay attention to your body if something’s off.’ ”
Bristol Myers Squibb — an international biopharmaceutical company that develops and delivers medicines — for the past decade has organized Coast 2 Coast in the United States to “demonstrate its long-standing commitment to cancer research.”
The effort began in 2014 when a group of oncology employees from the company’s U.S. sector felt that they needed to do more for those impacted by cancer, the company said. More than $14 million has been donated worldwide for cancer research since then, they added.
A group of company employees is annually selected to participate, volunteering to ride in one leg of the cross-country journey that is split into sections of the nation. The total ride will amount to almost 3,000 miles from Cannon Beach, Ore., to Long Branch, N.J.
They combine with people affected by cancer from the private sector. Soto was picked to participate this year.
“It was a little bit emotional knowing my journey, but I think everybody’s been impacted by cancer in some way and we all have a mission: We want to create more memories for patients; we want to raise awareness,” Soto said.
Colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among people under 50, according to the University of California, Davis. A 2017 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that millennials, or those born between 1981 and 1996, have twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with those born in 1950.
For Soto, who had never thought she would be one of those younger adults battling the disease, bringing awareness to it has become part of her life’s mission.
“(Soto) is an inspiration to us all,” said Chrissy Jolley, one of Soto’s squad captains in the ride. “As a cancer survivor herself, she gives the entire team inspiration for our mission to raise money for cancer research — our miles make memories for our friend, family and our teammate.”
She joined a team of 15 others from across the nation, gathering under the name “Wheels of Fire” with a goal of raising $90,000. As of Tuesday, the team had already surpassed it by over $7,000.
It was a long six months of training for Soto, who had only ridden bikes with her family as a child. She trained with a coach five days a week in preparation, usually before work in the morning or late at dusk when the temperatures are cooler in the region, she said.
When Soto first bought the fancy new bike she is using in the journey, she said she could bike two or three miles without feeling tired.
Now, she can put in 170 miles in a weekend, she said. You can usually find her training with her husband along the 215 Beltway trail toward Boulder City.
“Gina always has a smile on her face and is willing to give encouragement to all of those on our team,” Jolley said. “She has put in hard work in the Las Vegas heat, not to mention she has taken on a role at work that requires her to travel, and she always finds a way to train.”
Jolley — who met Soto for the first time virtually in March — said Soto never misses her workouts, even when traveling for her job. Soto has trained in six states, including Nevada, as well as Ireland and Wales, she added.
Soto’s journey with cancer, and the difficult experiences so many other cancer patients go through, motivate her to continue riding, she said.
“The training is pretty intense, but it’s nothing in comparison to what patients with cancer go through, their journey,” Soto said. “When it’s raining and it’s windy — especially here — or it’s hot, patients with cancer don’t have that opportunity to stop their treatment, they still have to push through.”
The team is biking up to 80 miles a day — with a break every 20 to 25 miles, Soto said. Two vans travel with them for safety reasons, and bike mechanics are always nearby in case of an emergency. Every night, they stop off at the closest city and recharge in a hotel.
The part she was looking forward to the most? Getting team jerseys.
Soto said her coach, armed with a trusty sewing machine, stitched the names of current cancer patients on the backs of all 15 jerseys.
In Soto’s eyes, “it’s ... just a huge motivation” for her team to “push and create more memories for people like that” while riding — people who she can relate to.
And just as they inspire Soto, she hopes to inspire them through her fundraising and riding efforts.
“I think it’s really important that even if I can help one person who may be going through what I went through and see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, then I think that’s that,” Soto said.
You can donate to Soto’s “Wheels of Fire” team at tinyurl.com/soto-drive.
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