About Me

Profile

About: Hi everyone! I'm Katie Goodfellow and I'm a sophomore studying Biomedical Engineering here at UT. While almost all my extended family resides in England (God save the Queen), my parents decided to switch it up, and raised me, my older sister, and younger brother in Katy, Texas. Though my parents and brother hopped back across the pond to Aberdeen, Scotland after I graduated high school, my sister (a junior at UNC Chapel Hill) and I have been holding it down in the States for our newly Americanized side of the family.

I fell in love with the beautiful game of soccer as a chubby fourth grader, and played all the way through my final year of high school. Unfortunately, my love of running didn't come until my teen years, but when it finally did come, it stuck. I'm all about the outdoors, snow boarding, coffee shops, live music and any science class I've ever taken. My favorite band changes every month or so, but it's almost always some kind of indie folk group that has me wishing I hadn't quit all the instruments I set out to master as a child. For now, my limited guitar skills will have to do. After graduating from UT, I'm hoping to go to Med school to become a pediatric oncologist.

Why I Ride

“When you die that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live. So live, live. Fight like hell. And when you get too tired to fight, then lay down and rest and let somebody else fight for you.”

-Stuart Scott

I met Travis and Ashli at my hometown church, where they mentored me and a few of my closest friends through our last year of high school. For countless Sunday mornings, I could count on them for hilarious stories, honest opinions, and answers to my hardest questions.
Travis’s unmatched intellect and Ashli’s kindhearted warmth were the perfect complements. By the time I graduated, I had come to know them as my wisest teachers and greatest inspirations.

When Travis was diagnosed with an untreatable form of liver cancer in 2011, doctors gave him about one year to live. Against all odds, Travis was still around in 2013 to welcome his baby twins into the world, and in 2014 to see them turn 1. For four years, Travis and Ashli refused to waste a day in self-pity, and instead, by the grace of God, saw each moment as a gift to love and be loved. They clung fearlessly to a hope that their story could be a source of life-changing truth and peace, and in the chaos of disease, that’s exactly what they found.

In November of 2015, the same day I was accepted to ride for the Texas 4000 2017 team, Travis called to tell me he had been referred to hospice. Two weeks later, he passed away. When I think of Travis’s fight, I am often reminded of the Stuart Scott quote he once shared with me, stated above.

I ride for Travis, who beat cancer by how he lived, and for Ashli, who took on the fight when Travis needed rest. I ride for their sweet baby twins, Thurgood and Tallulah. I ride for their story, which changed my life, in hope that it can change others’ as well.

I ride for my strong and compassionate friend Olivia, who lost her mother to cancer at much too young of an age. I ride for my best friend Elisabeth, who remained steadfast in her positivity and strength as cancer in her family and illnesses of her own made her high school years far from ideal.