Texas 4000 Cyclists Visit Ochsner Cancer Patients

Twenty-seven college cyclists from Texas 4000 – the longest annual charity bike ride in the world – recently stopped in New Orleans to visit the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner Medical Center.

While in New Orleans, the riders visited with Ochsner cancer patients and their families and toured the infusion floor. They also presented a $10,000 donation for Ochsner’s patient assistance fund designed to help eligible patients participate in Ochsner’s Precision Cancer Therapies Program (PCTP) – an initiative that allows regional access to the latest in cancer therapeutics, research and advanced diagnostics. PCTP provides an experienced staff including nurses, doctors, researchers, technicians, laboratory personnel, infusion staff, schedulers and a concierge, fully dedicated to early phase clinical trial cancer patients.

This is the fourth year in a row Texas 4000 has visited Ochsner as part of its 70-day bike ride from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK. In addition to stopping in New Orleans, the Texas 4000 riders on the Ozarks route also pass through Houston, TX; Memphis, TN; St. Louis, MO; Chicago, IL; Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis, MN; and the Canadian cities of Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Whitehorse. University of Texas students selected for this competitive program raise $4,500, ride 2,000 training miles with a team and perform more than 50 hours of community service before biking across the country on one of three routes from from Austin, TX to Anchorage, AK.

For more information about the Ochsner Precision Cancer Therapies Program and to learn more about the Early Phase Trials being conducted at Ochsner, please click here or call 888-995-7405.

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About Ochsner Health System

Ochsner Health is Louisiana’s largest non-profit, academic, healthcare system. Driven by a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate, coordinated clinical and hospital patient care is provided across the region by Ochsner's 40 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and specialty hospitals, and more than 100 health centers and urgent care centers. Ochsner is the only Louisiana hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Hospital” across three specialty categories caring for patients from all 50 states and more than 70 countries worldwide each year. Ochsner employs nearly 25,000 employees and over 4,500 employed and affiliated physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties and conducts more than 700 clinical research studies. Ochsner Health is proud to be a tobacco-free environment. For more information, please visit ochsner.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Texas 4000

Texas 4000 for Cancer is a nonprofit organization with a mission to cultivate student leaders and engage communities in the fight against cancer. Each year a team of dedicated University of Texas at Austin students complete a more than 4,000-mile bike ride from Austin, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska sharing Hope, Knowledge, and Charity along the way. Over the course of their 18-month involvement with Texas 4000, riders train, fundraise, volunteer in the community, and serve in leadership roles to help plan every aspect of the summer ride. The leadership development program culminates in Texas 4000’s capstone event, a 70-day summer ride - the longest annual charity bike ride in the world. Since 2004, more than 800 students have completed the ride, raising over raising over $9.7 million and logging more than 4,718,000 miles – fighting cancer every mile. Find us at texas4000.org,facebook.com/texas4000 or twitter.com/Texas4000.