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On April 13 2017 Childhood Cancer Talk Radio interviewed Roy Wiegand of Burbank CA, suburb of Los Angeles, a local free-lance musician with an evolving career as ultra-distance runner and advocate for children with cancer. Roy began running later in life in his early forties, and has been “ultra-running” for about 7 years now, prompted initially by his association through his church with an Ethiopian gentleman who was visiting to raise awareness for the urgent need for clean water access in his native country. This inspired his church to host a 100-mile bike ride with Roy leading the effort to make this event a staple fundraiser for the charity Lifewater, and challenge to riders with at 12,000 foot gain in elevation for the event.
Running for causes came naturally to Roy so that when he came across the Wilke family and their son Christopher, a boy-scout friend of Roy’s son who had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer with little hope for survival, he was inspired to run and raise funds for the local foundation supporting the Wilke family in their struggle. The Michael Hoefflin Foundation in Santa Clarita, CA, supports local families fighting childhood cancer in Southern California, and Roy has now run to raise funds for the foundation for the past four years. June 14th 2017 he will run his fourth ultra-distance run, this being 131 miles–his longest run yet–to support the Michael Hoefflin Foundation.
