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The Road to a Cure

By Elizabeth Winchester

On August 28, the four members of the Eber family rode their bikes to the U.S. Capitol building, in Washington, D.C. It was no lazy Saturday-morning outing. It was the last leg of a 16-month bike trip around the world. Paula, Lorenz, Anya and Yvonne Eber pedaled more than 9,300 miles and visited 24 countries. Their mission: to raise awareness of and money for asthma.

"Asthma is a big problem," Anya, 14, told TFK. The disease makes it hard for as many as 150 million people throughout the world to breathe. The Ebers hope that by the end of December, World Bike for Breath, the organization that they began, will have raised $5 million in donations. The money will be spent on asthma research and programs for kids who have the illness.

Paula, 45, knows how hard having asthma can be. As a child, her severe case forced her to spend months in bed. Medications that enabled her to participate in sports weren't available until she was a teenager. "A lot of kids today still don't get to live an active life," Paula explains.

The Ebers have taken many bike trips, but nothing like this one! Highlights included eating a Christmas dinner of Chinese duck in Hong Kong and celebrating Yvonne's 12th birthday with coconut-and-mango cake in Tonga, which is located in the Pacific Ocean. On most of the journey, the family slept in tents. Sometimes they could not shower for days. The hardest part, Yvonne says, was braving the heat, wind, rain and bugs.

While on the road to help find a cure, the Ebers furthered their love of nature. Returning to life at their home in Bainbridge Island, Washington, will not be easy. "I've had school outdoors for months," Anya says. "It will be so weird to sit at a desk!"

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