Every rider’s first Pelotonia experience is special, and so it was for Kristina Johnson, PhD, president of The Ohio State University and a cancer survivor. “To think that all these people are riding because they have or have had cancer — or a sister or a brother or a mother or father or a friend who’s gone through cancer — and they know what they’re doing that day is helping them and the next generation is pretty amazing,” she says of the annual bike ride that has raised more than $230 million for cancer research at The Ohio State University. “I recognized my own mortality at a pretty young age,” Johnson says of her Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis in 1979. “It felt as if the walls were closing in.” Johnson was a student and standout field hockey and lacrosse player at Stanford University at the time of her diagnosis. President Johnson shares more details of her cancer journey, and her role in helping to lead the OSUCCC – James, on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Listen via the video player above or on SoundCloud. She subsequently underwent two, six-week courses of intensive radiation therapy — a somewhat new treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the time — that led to vastly improved outcomes. She had to deal with exhaustion, nausea and weight loss. Johnson’s therapy also taught her the importance of research in discovering new life-saving cancer treatments. Now, decades later, further studies have shown that chemotherapy has augmented radiation treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and resulted in even better outcomes for patients. “That’s why Pelotonia is so important,” Johnson says.