From a family request to global help. In memory of their grandmother, the Rodríguez brothers created the PedaEla challenge: the starting signal for a brand that helps raise awareness about a disease that affects 5 out of every 100.000 people. Dissemination and support for research are the main values of this movement that fights, at the pace of pedals, to end a painful disease.
Shortly before dying, Héctor Rodríguez's grandmother asked him and his brother Álex to never stop fighting. “She died of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and could not take care of herself,” Héctor begins when recounting the birth of the PedaEla Challenge. A tribute that took them from Barcelona to Galicia, where the woman died: 17 days, more than 1200 kilometers and more than twenty thousand meters of accumulated unevenness. A tough cycling path in honor of one of the most important people in your life. “We were able to get to Galicia and say goodbye to her in the cemetery,” says Héctor proudly.
PedaELA Challenge: A cycling challenge against sclerosis
Initially, the challenge had a beginning and an end. Once the family tribute was over, the Rodríguez brothers wanted to continue with their love for cycling, but without thinking about more special events. However, the great follow-up and good reception of the initiative made many cycle tourists want to collaborate: “More and more people joined.”
Social networks were key in disseminating the challenge: “We were recording the preparation and making some videos. “It went viral because people wanted to join together to accumulate kilometers to fight this disease.” A challenge with many followers to which its creators dedicate less time than they can, as Héctor comments: “We have another life, but we try to make time where we can.”
Accumulate kilometers to research ALS
The PedaEla challenge allows cyclists Help with research through a club in the Strava app. The kilometers of some tests associated with Héctor and Álex's challenge can be transformed into money for investigate the cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: “There are brands that sponsor us and many of them convert kilometers or meters of ascent into financial aid for the Bellvitge hospital or the Val d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona”. It was important, as Héctor confesses, that they could help free of charge: beyond private donations, external to them; Participating in the PedaEla challenge is free for cyclists.
Dissemination, as always, is a fundamental part of the challenge. For Héctor, it is very important that as many people as possible know what the disease is and how it affects the population: “Let them know what ALS is, what it means, how it affects. That is the real action: to spread the word and let people know what this disease is like.”
A solidarity store full of cycling products
The second way in which you can collaborate with the challenge created by Héctor and Álex is through the Online store. Here you can find specialized products for cyclists, such as jerseys, caps or socks. Also, street clothes and sports bags to spread the PedaEla challenge at all times. Y That which saves us, the book that includes the original challenge of Héctor and Álex.
An initiative that allocates the vast majority of income to research in these Catalan hospitals. “If you do something related to cycling and offer cycling products, it always tends to turn out well,” confirms Héctor, happy with the results and proud because, at the beginning of this adventure, even television was interested in reporting on them.
ALS, a disease that cannot be forgotten
Society's knowledge about ALS has increased in recent years: the viral ice water bucket challenge or the cases of Carlos Matallanas (Diario AS journalist who died a few months ago due to the disease) and Juan Carlos Unzué, former professional soccer player, have contributed to making its devastating effects known.
Héctor Rodríguez emphasizes the importance of researching ALS because of how it acts: “It is a disease that kills you for months and years, that reminds you that it is killing you. We have to realize that and we have to find a solution for a cure or to make it less painful.”. Good dissemination can help research accelerate, although Spain is somewhat stagnant in this aspect.
After more than a year marked by a disease like the coronavirus, it seems that the rest of the evils do not exist.
However, unfortunately, many people continue to suffer from diseases that are far from a cure. As Héctor comments, some such as cancer or AIDS are recognized and everyone knows that they must be eradicated. Others, like ALS, suffer from media oblivion that sometimes hinders their progress. This 2021, which has already reached its halfway point, concentrates a request from PedaELA: “We cannot forget the importance of the disease. Spirits cannot fail and the challenge must continue as at the beginning. ALS does not stop and we can only end it with a lot of research.”
The challenge does not stop and bicycles continue to circulate in the fight against this disease. Hopefully in a while we can talk to Héctor again. On that occasion, we hope, to comment on happier news about ALS, the disease he fights in tribute to his grandmother.
