Battling HIV/AIDS a mile at a time

Richard Brodsky was living with HIV when doctors told him he had terminal brain cancer and only two years to live. Devastated, he made a promise to himself:

"If my life is spared, I will do everything to help others living with HIV and cancer, and the millions of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa."

That was in 2002. Brodsky, 58, an architect, author and marathon runner from Atlantic Beach, survived. A year later, he finished the New York City Marathon "in just five hours," less than two hours slower than his fastest marathon finish before his brain cancer diagnosis.

True to his promise, Brodsky, whose cancer was not related to his HIV, became the founder and president of the Richard M. Brodsky Foundation, launched in 2004 to help raise awareness that "so many people need not die from AIDS every year."

The foundation has so far sponsored seven fundraising World AIDS Day marathons, six of them in Kenya. It also has organized runs and walks in the United States to encourage people living with HIV or cancer to participate, and it donates money to many cancer and AIDS-related projects. The foundation will hold a 5k run / walk June 12 at Cedar Creek Park in Seaford.

"I believe running saved my life," Brodsky said, "and I have access to the AIDS medicine and care and the loving support of my wife. So I wanted other people to get the benefit of running, and I want governments to get the AIDS medicine to people all over the world. When it comes down to it, we are our brothers' keepers, and it doesn't matter if the brother is in America or if the brother is in Africa."

Passionate fundraisers

Brodsky is not alone in his quest to reduce the impact of AIDS in Africa. On May 2, Victoria Fanslow and Diane Gantenhammer, both 24 and friends since they attended Farmingdale High School, will embark on a one-month, 1,000-mile bike ride from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to San Francisco.

The ride, originally conceived as an adventure, is also a fundraising mission for Support for International Change, an organization fighting AIDS in Tanzania.

For most of the past 18 months, Fanslow, a pre-med graduate of Stanford University who lives in San Francisco, was a volunteer in rural Tanzania doing HIV education and testing and setting up chicken coops to give people with HIV a livelihood.

"I've been part of it, watching people who were scared of HIV learn they have a future; empowering people and giving them hope and confidence and support," she said.

Like Brodsky, Fanslow and Gantenhammer enjoy physical challenge. Both are world travelers and sports enthusiasts. Fanslow played tennis and varsity lacrosse in high school and loves climbing, snowboarding, running, hiking and biking. She's climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya, rafted on the Nile and Zambezi rivers, and explored rain forests in Costa Rica.

Gantenhammer, of Chicago, ran track with Fanslow in high school and was captain of the soccer team at Wagner College on Staten Island.

The friends will be traveling together for the first time. They plan to ride about 50 miles a day and rest one day at friends' homes in major cities.

Challenges can be overcome

"The trip will test our mental and physical strength," Fanslow said, "but I think Diane and I are pretty capable of handling any situation."

Donations are being accepted at their website, bikeforchange. wordpress.com, which already has more than $1,000. Ninety percent of all donations will go to SIC; the rest will fund the ride.

Fanslow and Gantenhammer will pack raincoats, one change of clothing, sleeping bags and a two-person tent to pitch at campsites. They will stay in touch with friends and family via cell phone and a blog.

To prepare, the women are hiking, biking, running, working out in the gym and playing soccer. "We're going to have fun," Gantenhammer said, "and also raise money for a good cause."