LEXINGTON, Ky. — There is a fundraising challenge available for cyclists around the United States to join. The Great Cycle Challenge is a virtual fundraiser that goes through the month of September because September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. 

“There is actually very little funding from the federal government that goes to childhood cancer because it's considered a rare disease, but we know that for the families that are impacted by cancer, they want their child to have access to the best care and the best treatments that are available.” Vice President of Missions and Marketing for Children’s Cancer Research Fund, HaiVy Thompson said. 

The race is completely free to join and the Great Cycle Challenge website helps create personal fundraising pages, from there participants share the links to their social media and collect the money. 

There are more than 127,000 rides involved with the fundraiser for this year so far, with around 1,300 being Kentuckians. 

“I think it's a good opportunity to give other people the opportunity to donate that they wouldn't normally have access to. So the whole program really brings awareness and it’s just a really accessible platform to get those donations to raise awareness, which I thought was really cool.” A Kentucky participant, David Mitchell said.

Anyone that would like to donate to the research fund, can contribute to a specific rider or create their own fundraising page and join the challenge. The cycling challenge will continue to accept riders and donations through the end of September.