Profile

  • Route: Ozarks
  • Ride Year: 2021
  • Hometown: Austin, TX

About: Hello there! My name is William Wallock, and I am thrilled that I will be biking to Alaska during the summer of 2020 to kick cancer's ass. I was raised here in Austin, so before starting my time at UT I decided to get away for a little while and spend a year in Israel. I am now back in Austin studying Business, Plan II, and Core Texts and Ideas at UT, and I hope that one day I will find myself in law school. When I am not consumed by my academics, I love spending my time hiking and camping around the state of Texas and on the beaches of Haifa. I am avidly against wearing shoes and believe that hummus should be included in every meal. I come from a loving family of five who has always emphasized the importance of exploring the unknown and being a good person. I hope that I am able to embody these values by biking to Alaska with Texas 4000.

Why I Ride

I ride for the cancer patients that I was unable to adequately help as an EMT. While in Israel, I worked as a volunteer EMT with Magen David Adom in Ramat Gan. The frequency at which I encountered cancer patients was unrivaled by any other single disease or illness. Unfortunately, due to the nature of an EMT’s work, I primarily encountered the end of the, too often, losing battle against cancer. The patient’s family oftentimes narrated the lengthy, lopsided history of the collective campaign against the wicked creature that so much defined their loved one’s life. The harrowing despair and impotence that the family members felt for their loved one was undoubtedly characteristic of each and every one of the unique and eerie chronicles. My inability to even begin to understand the emotional anguish associated with cancer caused me great frustration. Although the failure to adequately empathize with cancer patients and their respective families caused me to feel a great deal of remorse, the utter shame of being a medical professional that was unable to cure or, at the very least, mitigate the harms of cancer caused me the greatest cognitive disturbance. As a medical professional, I felt as though I justly treated and bettered the conditions and lives of almost all of my patients with the key exception of those who were in the fight against cancer. This is why I ride. Although I was unable to save or even significantly better the lives of countless cancer patients last year, I wholeheartedly believe that by being a member of Texas 4000 I will be able to do more psychological and physical good for those who fight cancer and their families than I ever could have as an EMT.

I ride for those who disproportionately endure the horrific effects of cancer as a result of structural inequalities and discrimination. Socioeconomic status, geography, race, ethnicity, gender, education, etc. should never determine one's outcome in their fight against cancer.

I ride for Amy Mosier who is a breast cancer survivor.

I ride for Stacy Middleman who is a breast cancer survivor.

I ride for Raychel Funk who is a breast cancer survivor.

I ride for Tali Diamond who is a breast cancer survivor.

I ride for Jeff Lubar who fought cancer.

I ride for Kathy Bazarsky who fought breast cancer.

I ride for my Bubbie, Mollie Aczel, who is a breast cancer survivor.

Thank you for supporting my ride!