Arthur Sadrian bikes through lockdown for cancer charity

I love all the sports that I do. With ASL sports, I do cross country in the fall, swimming in the winter and track in the spring. Outside of school, I run and bike in the summer and rock climb throughout the year.

Running has always been the base of what I do, and then from that there’s swimming which I mainly use to build up my cardiovascular endurance, biking, which is running but a lot more manageable during the hotter months, and rock climbing which is an all-around workout. The best part of doing most of these sports is the different, endless opportunities that open up for you. Right now most of them are still accessible during this lockdown.

I’ve been in Massachusetts for both lockdowns and therefore I have a bit more freedom and flexibility. I run and bike outdoors, as that’s allowed for everyone, and I also have a bike setup indoors for easy access.

My friend goes to St. Johns [in London]. He and I often work out together, whether it’s going on runs or FaceTiming each other as we bike inside. Together we had the idea to actually create a larger goal and work towards it, which led to [this fundraiser].

During the pandemic, a lot of aspects have been overshadowed. Funds that would normally go to other places are being funnelled to COVID and there are still a lot of underlying problems in society that are not receiving the attention they need.

Therefore, we chose to focus on Chidren With Cancer UK, so we could keep awareness for cancer high, which is necessary to help the kids that the foundation supports. The foundation that we are donating to is very good at actively raising and investing money for cancer research.

We set our goal to be 1,000 miles in a month. This meant 500 miles for each of us. [As of Jan. 26], we have ridden 700 miles altogether and we’re on track to meet our goal.

I’ve done 350 miles so far, with about 150 left. Our final goal is £5000, however, I hope we exceed that as we have raised £3,565 by 65 individuals.

The fundraising process so far has been pretty successful. We first decided to individually reach out to members of the community that we already knew. We also have our fundraising platform which is open to anyone online.

The biking itself has definitely been a challenge, but a reachable one, which made it fun as well.

I’m really happy with how far we’ve come and how something that just started as a way to occupy time during distance learning turned into this tangible goal that I’ve worked to achieve both individually and with my partner.

We finished the challenge and hit our target goal of 5K on the same day, [Feb. 3]. From the beginning, we always knew we could do it but it was a challenge to suddenly be doing that much every day. I’m extremely happy with the way everything turned out.

The fundraising has been amazing. [On Feb. 2] we held an Instagram live and raised between £200-400.

When you’re put in a bad situation like lockdown, the best thing to do is to take advantage of it and put yourself to work.

Honestly, for me it worked well to just keep pushing myself, especially when it’s something I believe in.

I’d encourage other people to think of things they can do during lockdown that can help other people because at ASL we’re quite privileged and I think that we can use that privilege to other people’s advantage.

For me, I chose something I loved and a problem I saw – with my friend – in London today and aimed to fix it. One way for everyone really is to start a fundraiser of your own or donate to one you believe in.

The donation page for Sadrian’s initiative is linked here.