Invitation to the press event: Rainbow ride makes a stop in Chemnitz
Mayor Miko Runkel welcomes the cyclists
The 23rd Rainbow Ride stops off in Chemnitz on 24 August 2015. Mayor Miko Runkel welcomes the 45 participants at 11.45 am in the Green Parlour of the town hall.
At around 12.30 p.m., the procession will set off from the market square in front of the town hall in the direction of Falkenau. Mayor Miko Runkel will take part in the ride on his own bike to support the Rainbow Riders' cause.
The 23rd Rainbow Ride is an initiative of the German Childhood Cancer Foundation. The participants, who were all diagnosed with cancer themselves as children and adolescents, will cover a distance of almost 600 kilometres from 22 to 29 August 2015. The tour leads from Halle via Leipzig, Chemnitz, Dresden and Cottbus to Berlin. They will visit mayors, parents' associations and paediatric oncology wards in clinics.
With the Rainbow Ride, the young participants not only want to prove that top sporting performance is possible even after cancer. They also want to give children with cancer and their parents in the treatment centres courage and hope: "Just like us, you can do it too."
One of the participants is a 25-year-old from Chemnitz. Tina Friede was diagnosed with lymph node cancer at the age of 15, which she was able to fight successfully.
"Shortly after my second treatment ended in 2007, the Rainbow Riders came to Chemnitz," recalls the then 17-year-old. A year later, she was there herself and still is today. "It's a very personal tour for me." She is now a Berliner by choice and coordinates the visits to the paediatric cancer wards as part of the team.