By David Fleet
Editor
Continual rain and plenty of traffic on area roads has not hampered Kathy Bolton’s mission.
By Tuesday afternoon Bolton, had biked more than 113 miles of a 250 goal as part of the month of June’s Great Cycle Challenge.
“I’ll knock back that 250 miles back before the end of the month,” laughed Bolton, a Hadley Township resident. “I think I’ll get to 350 miles.”
Bolton’s two wheel quest is a challenge to raise funds and awareness for kids’ cancer.
“Treating kids’s cancer is different and the therapies they need is unique,” she said. “They just don’t have as much research so there’s not as harsh. They often use adult treatments on children little tiny bodies. It’s a specific type of treatments.”
So far she’s raised more $750 for children’s cancer research.
Bolton emphasized childhood cancers often aren’t diagnosed early enough—in 80 percent of kids, cancer has already spread to other areas of the body by the time it is diagnosed.
While helping to fight children’s cancer Bolton’s ride also honors her mother, Frances R. Yates, who in February 2017 died at 72 years old of ovarian cancer.
“The cancer spread,” she said. “Mom was afraid to go to the doctor so she delayed, if she had gone for treatment earlier it could have been caught. So my riding also helps raise awareness of cancer and get to the doctor. For kids because they are so young the cancer is often well advanced before they find it, they don’t expect cancer in kids.”
Bolton works with at risk youth in Oakland County.
“Our family really loves kids,” she said. “Mom would be touched by me riding for the kids. The kids are all great it’s the circumstances that’s the problem.”
The funds are needed for research to help save kid’s life. Only 4 percent of federal funding for cancer research goes to childhood cancer research. The more funding they receive from riders like Bolton, the faster they can work towards better treatments for kids.
Bolton’s bicycle mission often involves riding along busy roads.

“When bikers are riding along the side of the road please slow down,” she said. “I often ride along busy roads to get the miles in I need. If drivers could just be careful when they see bikers. Often drivers are thinking, ‘oh what a pain in the butt there’s bikers are in the road ahead of me,’ keep in mind how horrible you would feel if you hit that person. I know they would. Just slow down and go around them.”
To support Kathy and the Great Cycle Challenge pledge to
https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Riders/KathyBolton?utm_source=share