Profile

About: Hi, welcome to my profile, and thank you for visiting or supporting Texas 4k!

My name is Jack and I was born in a small town in East Texas called Kilgore and I grew up in a single-parent household with my mother and sister. Currently, I am studying biochemistry and health & society to hopefully pursue a career in either medicine or healthcare administration and law.

Some of my favorite hobbies and pastimes include cooking, traveling, keeping up with politics, and drinking TONS of tea.

Why I Ride

Joining Texas 4000 and biking to Alaska is truly one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that seem impossible to the average person. When I first came to college and learned about this organization, I was precisely one of those who thought such a feat was nigh impossible or unobtainable.

However, due to recent events in my life, I have felt that I want to do something meaningful for the cancer-fighting community and for a particular individual who recently died of a type of blood cancer in my life, even if the mission seems insurmountable.

Cancer truly has impacted the lives of so many around the world, including myself and my family. Last year, on 06/14/2020, my grandmother died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of seventy-three. If there’s anyone on this planet I would ride for to Alaska, it would be for her. When I was born, I was raised not by my parents, who lived in America, but by my grandparents, who were living in China. Needless to say, my great-grandmother and great-grandfather were the mother and father figures to me.

Over the years, despite being thousands of miles away from them, I would often video call my grandparents and ask about their whereabouts. It was as if nothing changed other than physicality, and this trend continued through my graduation from high school and into college. So when my parents told me of my great-grandmother's passing, their words pierced me like an arrow. It saddens me to my core that doctors in China were unable to detect her cancer sooner or had the means of treating her in the rural town that she lived in.

Just like the three primary principles of Texas 4k, I want to ride for CHARITY so that humans have the resources necessary to accelerate this fight against cancer. I want to ride for KNOWLEDGE to spread awareness and better combat cancer in the future. Finally, I want to ride for HOPE to inspire the communities around the country to join in the fight against cancer. On a more personal note, I want to join Texas 4k because I want to show my grandmother how much I loved her, not just as a family member but as my role model since childhood. I know that when she looks down from the heavens, she would not only want me to ride to Alaska for her but for all those who suffer and have suffered from cancer’s toll.

To Alaska and back,
Jack "Jake" Cheng