About Me

Profile

  • Route: Sierra
  • Ride Year: 2018
  • Hometown: Austin, TX

About: Hello world! My name is Victoria Lee, and I’m double majoring in computer science and biomedical engineering despite going through a phase in high school during which I really wanting to be a kpop singer. I’ve lived in the Austin area my whole life with my parents, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister.

In my spare time, I enjoy catching up with old friends and getting to know new ones over boba. In addition, I enjoy making music by playing the piano and violin and by singing. Although I have had to put these interests mostly on hold for now, I do plan on getting back into them once the course load of a double major lessens. I’m always down for karaoke though!

Why I Ride

In 2016, I spent the summer in Houston at MD Anderson as a participant in the Cancer Prevention Research Training Program. While there, I conducted my own research project in the Department of Cancer Systems Imaging. I also had the opportunity to shadow doctors and surgeons, and I ride for all the patients I saw during my 10 weeks at the hospital.

I ride for the man who was told that he wouldn’t have much longer to live because his cancer had spread too rapidly.

I ride for the woman whose husband began crying and thanking the doctor endlessly after the doctor delivered the wonderful news that she was in complete remission.

I ride for the man I saw during in-patient rounds who was my age and should have had a long life ahead of him. Instead, he was losing his battle to cancer, listening to the many phone calls his mother was making to try to notify his friends and relatives so that they may come see him one last time.

I ride for the woman with stage 4 breast cancer who had beaten the odds and was eight years into her battle and who is perhaps the liveliest and sassiest person I’ve ever met.

I ride for all of the current cancer patients I didn’t see and for all cancer survivors, but I also ride for a selfish reason – for my own family, who are thankfully all healthy at this point in time. I can’t imagine what would happen if any of us were to be diagnosed with cancer, and I hope that my work with Texas 4000 will ensure that absolutely no one in this world will have to worry about the disease in the future.