Oleg Pelekhaty, a D.C. firefighter, raised $3000 this summer for an ovarian cancer charity by riding his motorcycle from D.C. to California and back. His fiancee’s mother, who is in remission from ovarian cancer, inspired him to learn more about it and, ultimately, to make the trip.
“And I also wanted to see the country, so I kind of combined the two and killed two birds with one stone,” he said.
He rode about 400 miles every day for the 16-day journey, which he began on June 6. He slept at fire departments along the way.
“I can’t think of any other job where you’d be able to do that,” he said. “It was a nice example of the brotherhood that we have in the fire department.”
Many of the departments gave him stickers for his helmet. One, though, in Iowa City, Iowa, gave him a different sticker in honor of one of their former firefighters who had just died of colon cancer. By the time Pelekhaty got to Chicago, he had received an email from the firefighter’s widow, along with a generous donation.
“That was really touching,” he said. “That was a really meaningful bit of support.”
The money he raised went to the HERA Women’s Cancer Foundation, which seeks to raise awareness of ovarian cancer as well as research funds.
“I’ve heard people relate it to how we felt about breast cancer in the ’80s, something we don’t really want to talk about, something that’s out of mind, out of sight,” said Jill Salasky, president of the board of directors.
Meg Steitz, the executive director, said Pelekhaty is the first person to bike across the country for HERA.
“I guess maybe it is unusual for a man to do this on his own,” she said, “but it affects men just as well as affecting women.”
