Ride Date Now Set: Sunday, February 23rd!

Dan will be riding Sunday, February 23rd. Don't forget to sign up on the pledge sheet here or embeded below this week before his ride! We appreciate the support and prayers! The procedure will be the following week after his ride - they are glad to finally have a date set!

The GarminFit live tracker is working very well, so make sure you track his ride and feel free to go catch up with him at some point in the day. All riders are welcome: fast and leisurely!

Thank you again!

About Ride for Relief

Thank you for visiting our Page!

If you are here, you likely know Samantha or Daniel and are interested in their story or would like to help! 

Let's start with a little background: Over 4 years ago now, Sam was in a rear-ending car accident in D.C., she quickly went into physical therapy and was making progress and returned to work, had just gotten the car back from being repaired and was on her way to her first meeting back at the U.S. Senate, when she was rear-ended again!

Long story short, years and years of different chiropractors and Orthopaedic surgeon appointments, trigger point injects, and epidural injections transpired until, in the spring of 2013, she finally found the answer to all of her pain with a disco gram. She in fact has an annular tear at her L5-S1 disc. Some doctors wanted to perform a spinal fusion, but she was lucky enough to find a doctor concerned with the long run and who realized that the fusion is not the best first option.

In the fall of this year, she was referred to another Orthopaedic surgeon at Trinity Spine Center in Trinity, FL where they have had great success with stem cell therapy. Now, some may question this process, but in fact they will be extracting the bone marrow from Sam's iliac crest (aka hip) and within that fluid lie about 100,000 stem cells. Those cells will be attached to Hyaluronic acid (HA), which will allow it to "stick" to the substance and be easily removed from the red and white blood cells within the plasma.

So Sam, or perhaps to some of you, Mrs. DeBee, will be the first of two patients undergoing this mesenchymal stem cell therapy at the newly created lab facility in Trinity, FL. For one level of treatment, the cost will be $12,000, not including other costs leading up to or following the procedure. Unfortunately, this procedure is not covered by insurance. While the FDA has approved clinical trials for this exact procedure, they have not yet put the "seal of approval" on the procedure for insurance purposes.

Sam and Dan would like to raise awareness for this type of procedure, which is much less invasive than the traditional fusion, especially for those patients who have tears in their discs and not fractures. Instead of insurance companies paying for a $90-130,000 spinal fusion, which a younger patient such as Sam, would have a 40% chance of needing several more in her lifetime, they could cover a procedure that has 94% success rate once for $12,000. This seems like a much better use of insurance and doctor resources.

Why Ride?
A few weeks ago, Dan suggested he would like to do a bike ride in order to raise money and awareness for her cause. He will ride his bike for as many miles as he can in one day. So, what might you like to do? You can:

1) "Sign" the Pledge Sheet and submit a flat donation. To SUBMIT donations,  Click HERE or on the donate button at the top left of the page,

2) "Sign" the Pledge Sheet AND indicate your suggested donation per mile ridden (your total will be tallied after the ride and you can donate at that time),

3) Show your support by riding along with Dan for as long as you like, or by following his ride through the web HERE or on Twitter.

However you decide to show your support, we thank you for taking the time to read their story and being a part of what will hopefully bring Sam back to her previous active self!