Marian St. Clair (Greenville, S.C.) rode her bike 67 miles to raise funds for a cure for juvenile diabetes.

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Clubwoman Marian St. Clair Puts Her Bike Where Her Heart Is to Help Find a Cure for Juvenile Diabetes

November 19, 2007

Have you ever gotten up early on a Saturday and decided it was a good day to bike 62 miles? For most of us, the answer is clearly “No,” but for Marian St. Clair (St. Andrews Woman's Club, Columbia, S.C., and GFWC Roper Mountain Woman's Club, Greenville, S.C), on September 22 the answer was not merely, “Yes,” but “Yes, because I promised I would.”

Marian successfully participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Ride to Cure Diabetes. In just under six hours, Marian completed her goal of cycling a metric century (62 miles), plus an extra five miles for a total of 67 miles of cycling through beautiful Whitefish, Montana, located on the western slopes of Montana's northern Rocky Mountains, just outside of Glacier National Park.

• Diabetes affects 246 million people worldwide, and the World Health Organization estimates it will affect 380 million by 2025.
• As many as 3 million Americans have type 1 diabetes.
• Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and non-traumatic amputations, and a leading cause of nerve damage, stroke, and heart attacks.
• Each year, more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. That's more than 40 children each and every day.
• Diabetes is single most costly chronic disease. In 2002, diabetes accounted for more than $132 billion in health-care costs in the United States.

To participate in the ride, Marian and the 967 other riders for 2007 were required to raise a minimum of $4,000. Along with training for three months—riding her bike at least three times a week for a total of at least 50 miles per week, and working with a personal trainer—Marian worked hard to raise the funds. To date, she has received 89 individual donations totaling $4,770, and continues to receive donations since her ride.

The Ride to Cure Diabetes in Whitefish, Mont., on Sept. 22 raised $524,755.85, although that number changes daily as more money is still coming in. To date this year, the Ride program has raised more than $3 million and is expected to exceed $4 million once all the monies have been collected.

PHOTO: Marian and Tim St. Clair with other members of the "ChainGang" based out of Greenville, S.C.