I am Joel Farris. I was born in South Austin, Texas to my loving parents, following my brother and my sister. As I grew up I played drums, exercised, took things apart, and got through grade school. I learned about God as a teenager and started walking in Christianity during high school. Also in high school, I got involved in media arts and became a video editor.

I came north of the river in 2006 to UT to pursue a degree in filmmaking. I still hang out with my family all the time, work on campus at the ITS Help Desk, and have a girlfriend (from Austin) in College Station. I live with over twenty friends in a community house, I really love Jesus, and I'm also fond of wind, tree-climbing, and biking all over the place.

The way in which I have most personally been affected by cancer was not cancer at all, but the fear of cancer. For four years of my life I thought I had testicular cancer but was too afraid to tell anyone. During that time I learned about the fear this disease can give someone, and the way in which it attempts to crush hope. With God's help, at age seventeen, I was able to tell my youth pastor. After going to the doctor with my family, we learned it was not cancer or anything serious really. So after four years of expecting death, I was given hope for life and a future.

It is because of this trial that a ride fighting cancer stood out to me. I want those who currently have cancer to experience freedom and healing – life as it is meant to be. I also hope to educate and empower any who could be in fear or denial like I was.

My mission is to do what I can to help people escape this hope-shattering disease and its effects on them. I want a death to cancer.

Currently my close family friend Kenny Scott is fighting synovial sarcoma, and I ride in part for him and his fight.

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Special thanks to The Album Leaf for permission to use their song "Micro Melodies".