Ongole: Biker duo boosts the morale of cancer patients

Ongole: Vaishali Kulkarni More and Supriya Goel, two women motor bikers from Visakhapatnam started their journey on Sunday, the Republic Day to participate in Women's International Motorcycle Association India National Rally 1.0, scheduled from February 14 to 16 at Goa.

The brave hearts are taking a long route along the Coromandel, Malabar and Konkan coasts to cover 3,000 plus kilometres to create awareness on cancer and other social evils on the way and reached Ongole on Tuesday.

Vaishali is said to be the first female solo motorcyclist from Andhra Pradesh, who travelled more than 27,000 kilometres in her career. She is on this tour after taking a break due to major ankle injury and is determined that no pain would stop her journey.

Supriya, a stage-two breast cancer survivor, is chasing her childhood dreams of driving a motorcycle and embarked on the longest drive in her life.

The 51-year-old Vaishali and 41-year-old Supriya tag-lined their journey as 'Rise, Ride and Recover' to say it loud that age is not a factor to take on dreams and face challenges and achieve success after all. Though they would make pit stops on the way, they would advocate against the social evils and campaign for education for girls, awareness on genital hygiene and cervical cancer. They would also promote the theme of Women's Day 2020, 'Each for Equal' on their way to Goa.

The HCG MNR Hospital and Lions Club of Ongole felicitated the bikers at a programme held at the hospital. The club president Dr Shaikh Shakir said that the biker duo interacted with the patients in the hospital and boosted their morale on recovery.

The programme coordinator Rachana, club treasurer Balisetty Srinivasa Rao, Dr Ramana Reddy, Dr Raghunandan, Mehar, Ramakrishna, Murali and hospital staff also participated in the programme.