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ROBBINSVILLE: Woman cycling 4,400 miles for cancer fundraiser

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — Ami Kumordzi says she hadn’t been on a bicycle since she was 10, but that didn’t deter her from signing on for a 4,400 mile cross-country bike ride this summer to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.
   To get in shape for the 4k for Cancer 2012, the 22-year-old trainee at McMaster-Carr on New Canton Way, has been pedaling away on a stationary bike four times a week. Now with the advent of warmer weather, she’s ramping up her workouts to 20 miles a day on an outdoor bike so that she’s ready for 70 straight days of cycling with this summer from Baltimore, Maryland to Portland, Oregon.
   The 4K for Cancer is a program sponsored by the nonprofit Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. Since 2002, hundreds of college students and young adults have taken part in the annual fundraiser. Last year, 76 riders on three different cross-country routes collectively raised $476,000.
   Ms. Kumordzi, a Johns Hopkins University graduate who aspires to go to medical school to become a physician-scientist, said the 4K for Cancer has special meaning to her because she lost a friend and mentor to breast cancer in 2010.
   ”I was personally affected by the death of Dr. Jocelyn Spragg of Harvard Medical School, who was my greatest mentor,” Ms. Kumordzi said on Friday in a phone interview. Ms. Kumordzi said she met Dr. Spragg, the faculty director of diversity programs at Harvard, in 2009 while participating in a summer program there designed to encourage minority students in the bio-medical field.
   ”I want to do the 4k for Cancer to honor her because of the opportunity she gave me, which has set me on the path of study for what will become my life’s work,” said Ms. Kumordzi.
   Ms. Kumordzi said that after she completes her own eight-year journey through medical school, she wants to do research that hopefully will lead to new treatments and even cures for diseases such as cancer.
   There are three teams of riders — Team Portland, Team Seattle and Team San Francisco — that are taking part in the 4K for Cancer this summer and each group will follow a different route to the West Coast. Ms. Kumordzi is part of a group of 30 college students and young adults in Team Portland that departs from Maryland on May 27.
   The group will pedal about six hours a day to reach Portland by Aug. 4. Along the way they will take part in cancer education programs and visit patients at hospitals, cancer centers and hospices.
   In order to participate in the 4K for Cancer, each rider must raise at least $4,500 in donations. Ms. Kumordzi has set a personal goal of $5,000, and has raised about 20 percent of that goal so far.
   Anyone wishing to make a donation on behalf of Ms. Kumordzi to the 4K for Cancer, can go online to her profile page at http://4Kforcancer.org/profiles/ami-kumordzie/ or send a tax-deductible contribution to 4K for Cancer, 921 E. Fort Ave., Suite 325, Baltimore, MD 21230. When sending a check, write Ami Kumordzi in the memo line so that the donation is counted toward her fundraising goal.
   Donations support the initiatives of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.