San Benito native cycling across two countries for cancer

My uncle Paul Reece, who basically raised me since I was younger, he just got diagnosed with kidney cancer in October 2021. So I’m doing this bike ride for him.

SAN BENITO — It’s always a journey.

Sometimes, the search for a cure for cancer can seem like an endless one, and if not for the small victories, the development of treatments, and better detection, it might seem a pointless one.

But that cause is not pointless to Angelica Montes, 22, who is bicycling across the United States with her fellow members of Texas 4,000 from The University of Texas at Austin. She knows that every life saved makes the pain of the struggle worthwhile.

“There’s a group of about 46 of us that are cycling from Austin up to Anchorage, Alaska, for cancer,” said Angelica, a 2019 graduate of the South Texas Independent School District Medical Professions in Olmito.

Angelica, who is studying nutrition science at UT, explained that 4,000 equates to the number of miles her team is riding to Alaska. It rounds out, she continued, to about 4,500 miles worth of cycling.

“We each raised $4,500 in our cancer-fighting journey,” she said.

It was day 52 of her journey.

Angelica and her fellow cyclists had left Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada, and were on their way to Ft. Nelson, British Columbia. Their journey had already taken them through Houston, New Orleans and the Ozarks, then across to Minneapolis and other parts of North America.

And in the long, hot hours of the days across two countries they’ve found support all along the way, because everyone seems to have cancer story to tell.

Angelica does.

“My uncle Paul Reece, who basically raised me since I was younger, he just got diagnosed with kidney cancer in October 2021,” she said. “So I’m doing this bike ride for him.”

So dear is her uncle to her that when she turned 18 they both got matching tattoos which read, “I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more,” in reference to a song “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers.

“I think through this trip I’ll be living up to that tattoo comment, but it’s 4,000 miles biking,” she said.

She’s heard so many stories, such as that of a woman in Canada who lost her daughter to leukemia. The woman was a shop owner, and when word spread of the group’s cause the whole community rallied to support them with food, water and other supplies.

“She gave us a book her daughter had written,” Angelica said. “Those experiences and those connections like that, that really kind of cultivate the mission we are fighting for to spread awareness and more importantly spread hope. I think those have been the most impactful of the trip.”

This event each summer is the longest annual charity bike ride in the world, says the texas4000.org website.

“Each rider logs more than 4,000 riding miles throughout the ride,” states the site. “The riders arrange all accommodations in advance during the training year relying on the generosity of host families, churches, and schools for shelter, and are prepared to camp when housing is not available.”

The organization’s mission, Angelica said, is to spread hope, knowledge, and charity in the fight against cancer.

“We hope through our 70-day bike ride and the charity with all the money we raise goes toward cancer support services and cancer research and knowledge through programs in the communities where we have some cancer programs, educational programs we put on,” she said.