Multiple Myeloma Jim Hall 2
Jim Hall (Photo courtesy Janssen Oncology)
Bicycling has long been a passion for Glen Allen resident Jim Hall.
He’s been at home on the bike saddle since soon after moving to Richmond in the early 1970s. He started with an old Huffy and a short road trip, in which he quickly learned the worth of a bike more suited to pavement.
At age 68 and retired after a career in information technology, he tries to log 100 to 150 miles each week on the bike, and tries to make regular, 200-mile trips to visit relatives in his native North Carolina. But in 2014, he noticed something was wrong: He found himself laboring while riding with his biking club.
“It got to the point I couldn’t keep up with the riders I usually rode with,” he says. His condition deteriorated, and he could no longer hold his own with the beginners, let alone the more experienced riders.
He visited his doctor. Bloodwork was inconclusive, but she kept digging. She sent him to an oncologist and two months later, after a bone marrow biopsy, doctors had a diagnosis: multiple myeloma.
It’s a blood cancer that affects plasma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can wreak havoc upon bones, the immune system and red blood cells. About 23,555 cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, making it the most common blood cancer after leukemia and lymphoma. About 12,000 Americans die from it each year.
It’s rare in people younger than 45 and most common in older men. It’s twice as common in African Americans, according to the CDC.
Hall was lucky, and the disease was caught early. He started chemotherapy two weeks after diagnosis, and responded well to the treatment. In 2015, he received a stem cell bone marrow transplant at VCU Medical Center, and again responded well.
The follow-up regimen to the transplant called for 100 days of isolation at home. That was asking a lot of an avid cyclist such as Hall, but fortunately one of his doctors was also a biking enthusiast. That doctor told Hall to wear a mask and keep away from others, but that he could be on the road.
Hall did.
Multiple Myeloma Jim Hall 1
Photo courtesy Janssen Oncology
He recently took part in a portion of a cross-country biking event, Road to Victories, a fundraiser and outreach effort to benefit the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
As of today, six riders were on the road, biking in Kansas, about the halfway mark for the event. They began on Sept. 3 in Manhattan Beach, California, and are set to end the trip on Oct. 21 in Fairfield, Connecticut. The trek will cover 3,400 miles.
Hall is back in Glen Allen after riding about 950 miles with the group to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The event exceeded his expectations, he says, especially for someone who, apart from his family, enjoys nothing more than cycling. “There was no way I was not going to do this ride,” he says.
It’s more than simply logging miles on the road for Hall: It’s also about the people, those on the bikes and those he meets on the road. “The camaraderie between the cyclists and the people you meet [means] everything to me,” he says.
Riders on the tour have direct connections to the disease: Some are survivors, others are family members, and some work in the health profession. Their expenses are covered through a race sponsor, Janssen Oncology. All proceeds raised through the event will benefit the research foundation. The racing team has raised $364,853, with a goal of $400,000.
Hall expects to keep logging miles on his bike. It’s good medicine.
“The two things that are going to help you with your disease,” he says, are “having a good attitude and exercise.”
