Living a Dream

Thursday, January 07 2010 | Send to a friend

Living a dream

Elden Nelson

Elden Nelson started a popular cycling blog called Fat Cyclist a few years back - it was funny and personal. When his wife was battling breast cancer, he knew he either had to stop blogging, or write about the experience. His wife encouraged him to write, knowing that sharing their story would help him cope.

As a fan of the Tour de France legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, Elden also reached out to the LiveStrong Foundation for support. Impressed by their response, he harnessed the energy of thousands of his readers to raise money for LiveStrong and another charity, World Bicycle Relief. In 2009, Elden and Team Fatty raised over a million dollars. Elden talks to Dick Gordon about losing his wife, how he's managed to raise so much money to fight cancer, and his recent ride with Lance and Team Radio Shack. 

• Read Elden's blog
• Learn more about LiveStrong and World Bicycle Relief
  

First Apple

Ching Yeung Russell

Ching Yeung Russell is a writer. Her breakthrough book is called "First Apple." It tells the story of a young girl in China who's never tasted an apple, and sets her mind to do just that. It's pretty close to a true story about her own upbringing.

Ching grew up in mainland China with her grandparents. In seventh grade while working in the rice fields she decided she wanted to become a writer. But there was one problem: her family needed her to be a factory worker. Ching tells Dick how winning a writing contest changed her family's expectation of her and about the joy of publishing her first book in English. Ching's latest book is entitled "Tofu Quilt."

• Find out more about Ching's first novel "First Apple"
• Find out more about "Tofu Quilt"