Cyclists traverse miles to spread cancer awareness in New Delhi(Update: Cyclists)

New Delhi, Mar.24 (ANI): Several social groups undertook the task of raising awareness about cancer in New Delhi on Saturday, by organising a cycle rally to empathise with victims and help them overcome the pain of this deadly disease.

The event was organised to motivate the victims to battle the disease with a smile.

The cyclists traversed miles and covered several destinations before arriving in the national capital.

The organisers expressed concern over the increasing threat of the disease and added that the survivors are brave people.

"We work for those children and families who are affected by cancer and we try to bring about a difference in their physical and psychological health. We have organised a rally called Cycling for Change, which has come from the Gateway of India (Mumbai) to India Gate (New Delhi). These are our cyclists and they have traversed 1920 kilometres and covered Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur, Bharatpur and organised rallies there. They have spread awareness about cancer too and we are working for these people along with our partner Magic Bus," said Poonam Bagai, Founder President at Cankids Kidscan.

The rally named 'Cycling for Change' attempted to create awareness among the inflicted lot through the medium of sports.

"I work for the Magic Bus organization. Through sports, we are trying to spread awareness about health, education, gender and livelihood. We try to engage students in sports, so that they learn and have fun as well. So, this is a learning concept and they learn through this and we want to thank the cyclists and they have come all the way from Mumbai and two organizations are working together," said Rishi Vashistha, member of a social Magic Bus.

In fact, recently, Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding planned to offer cut-price versions of two blockbuster cancer drugs for the Indian market soon, days after the government moved to slash the price of another cancer treatment.

Roche, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, said it would offer "significantly" cheaper, locally branded versions of its two cancer drugs, Herceptin and MabThera, by early next year, under an alliance with India's Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

With around 40 percent of India's population living below the poverty line, healthcare is an upper-middle-class luxury.

The disease is rare in younger adults, but becomes more common as people grow old. Overall, the risk of getting lung cancer is about one in 13 for men and one in 16 for women. (ANI)