From Golden Gate to Jersey Shore: 3,566 Miles of Riding Hard, Breathing Easy

There are charity rides, and then there is what college student and local resident Jack Owens accomplished.

On May 20, 2025, Owens set out east from San Francisco toward Ocean City, New Jersey in the saddle of his Cannondale bike to commence a 3,566-mile ride. His goal: to raise funds and lung cancer awareness on behalf of Ride Hard Breathe Easy (RHBE), an organization that has generously supported lung cancer patients and researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center and other institutions throughout the East Coast. His efforts have raised over $55,000 to date.

According to Owens, the challenge proved tougher mentally than physically.

“I began to focus on all the people who have gotten me to this point and all who were helping me make it possible,” Owens said, “And then I thought about all the people we can still help and the huge differences we could make in their lives.”

Owens averaged close to 90 miles each day of his seven-week ride. His course carried him over the Rockies and across the Great Plains toward his goal. He conducted countless media interviews and rode alongside friends, family members, and well-wishers. He visited his school, University of Notre Dame, where he is a rising Junior in Business Analytics, and spoke to the local news station. He changed ten flat tires. He suffered through heat, rain, and hail. He burned 10,000 calories a day, according to his Garmin (and yet still managed to gain two pounds through the magic of youth).

On July 3, however, he took a slight detour to visit Fox Chase and say hello to friends and family.

“Jack put himself into every mile, and committed his bank account to kick start fundraising,” said Paul Owens, his father and a Fox Chase/Temple Health IT professional. “When he first asked us about it, my wife Karen and I were a little nervous, of course, but then Jack ‘tunnel visioned’ on this and began devoting every free minute at school to training and nutrition.”

According to both Jack Owens and his father, this ride was almost inevitable. In 2017, Jack Owens’ uncle, John “Jack” Matthews, rode west from Newtown Square to California to raise money for a separate lung cancer charity. Young Jack rode along in the SAG – Support And Gear – van that followed his uncle across the country. Two years later, Matthews would found RHBE.

“I joined my family in supporting Ride Hard Breathe Easy, and I knew I wanted to become more involved,” Jack Owens said. “Trying to follow my uncle’s ride was always in my mind, but it wasn’t until I went off to college that I started thinking about the idea seriously.”

A Different Type of Lung Cancer Foundation

In many ways, Ride Hard Breathe Easy began in December 2011 with the death of the family matriarch, Kathleen Matthews.

“Our entire family rallied around my mom, and we all learned firsthand about the challenges lung cancer patients and their caregivers face,” said John Matthews, who has since taken on leadership of the organization as his full-time position. “Lung cancer is unique in that there is a stigma to the disease that persists, which you can see in how little funding it receives, comparatively.”

As RHBE began, it placed a priority on patient comfort and relieving some of the financial stress that comes along with a lung cancer diagnosis. Their efforts focus on making sure families stay fed, the lights stay on, and someone always has a ride to their appointments. RHBE provides places like Fox Chase Cancer Center with options to help support patients in need, whether that is cash, gift cards, or a lift to the center.

“Bills, whether they are utility, phone or car payments, often get pushed to the side when it comes to prioritizing medical payments, and patients find it challenging to admit to financial insecurity,” said Lisa Etkins, MSS, LCSW, OSW-C, a social worker at Fox Chase. “Food insecurity is another issue, and if we find that someone is struggling to keep food in the house, support from Ride Hard Breathe Easy helps fill the gaps in the family budget with gift cards for groceries.”  

Ride Hard Breathe Easy has grown from a family effort in 2019 to a thriving organization that has raised more than $1 million to date through multiple events per year, including bike rides (both physical and virtual via Peloton) and golf tournaments. Since its inception, Fox Chase has been a partner and beneficiary of RHBE’s efforts and, to date, has received more than $300,000 over the last five years.

While RHBE chooses to focus on the comfort of patients and families, in recent years, the organization has begun an annual RHBE Innovation Award campaign, an opportunity for partnering organizations to apply for funding on a project that supports lung cancer patients. Fox Chase and Temple Health have collectively won all three $50,000 awards given thus far.

“The organizations we partner with are some of the best cancer centers in the country. In addition to providing exquisite care, they lead programs focused on the health of lung cancer patients, whether it is lung cancer screening, smoking cessation, mindfulness, unique ways to support a new drug, and other life-saving ideas,” John Matthews explained. “With the kindness of our donors, we offer these Innovation Award opportunities, so our partners can further improve the lives of even more lung cancer patients.”

The inaugural award went to Cherie Erkmen, MD, Professor of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and Director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program at Temple University Hospital, in 2022 for “Screen Time,” a program designed to promote adherence to an annual CT scan for lung cancer patients, particularly those experiencing health or socioeconomic disparities.

In 2023, J. Nicholas Bodor, MD, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor in Fox Chase’s Department of Hematology/Oncology, received the Innovation Award for a new study entitled Lung Cancer in Never-Smokers Risk Registry (LCNS-RR). The registry is designed to learn more about the rising rates of lung cancer in people who have never previously smoked. The registry is being developed in parallel with educational forums conducted with registry participants, their caregivers, and other community members. The forums will address community awareness as well as help patients and their caregivers manage the physical and emotional effects of the disease.

In 2024, Parth Desai, MBBS, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Fox Chase, received the Innovation Award to support participants in a trial of a recently approved drug for small-cell lung cancer. Funds provided will help cover hotel accommodations for patients and caregivers for the first few doses of the medication, as well as transportation assistance and discharge monitoring kits that include essential care items plus vital information on how to manage and report the occurrence of potential side effects.

While Fox Chase and Temple Health are only two of RHBE’s clinical partners, Etkins feels there is a special connection between all three organizations.

“I work with lung patients at Fox Chase, and I was there when John handed us the first check in 2019,” Etkins said. “Since then, I’ve gotten kind of addicted to the entire family—they make you feel like you can do anything in the world.”

She says RHBE got her out of her comfort zone and onto her Peloton, riding over 100 miles to raise money for the organization. According to Etkins, there are not many organizations doing what RHBE does for patients, and fewer that specifically support lung cancer patients and fight the stigma surrounding the disease. She has subsequently joined the Ride Hard Breathe Easy board to help the organization’s continued growth.

“There is something about this family and how it regards service,” Etkins said. “The entire family is open, generous, and fantastic.”

There Is Something About This Family

As John Matthews has said, his mother liked to quote the old saying, “Many hands make light work,” and many hands in the extended family have helped build up RHBE, while focusing on careers in serving others. Paul Owens, of course, has been associated with Fox Chase IT for many years, and his niece, Kayla Matthews, RN, is a surgical oncology nurse on 3A at Fox Chase.

She was also a volunteer in the SAG van – Paul Owens’ Honda Odyssey – that certainly lived up to its name on this journey. She and a few of her young cousins followed Jack Owens on his ride toward Valley Forge in the days before he visited Fox Chase.

“I think it is fair to say that service is part of the family, and that my grandmom’s lung cancer brought that out among us back in 2011,” said Kayla Matthews. “I saw my family – specifically my mom, who is also a nurse – rally around grandmom and then get involved in fundraising. It inspired me also to become a nurse and to join Fox Chase, which has been my home for the last five years.”

From the interview, which took place while Kayla Matthews was stopping at Wawa during a break for the SAG van family team, it was apparent the family took the project incredibly seriously, but with a sense of fun and adventure as befit young Jack Owens’ epic ride. The official RHBE Instagram and various family accounts and posts to Facebook paint a picture of a purposeful struggle that seemed worth every laborious mile.

“I have known the family for years now, and I can say Jack is one of the most remarkable young people I have met,” said Rebecca Farrell, MSN, RN, Clinical Nurse Manager of Ambulatory Care at Fox Chase Cancer Center – Huntingdon Pike. Farrell was part of his welcoming committee at Fox Chase and was there to applaud the team.

“He’s intelligent and a big thinker, but humble and respectful,” Farrell said. “In short, he is a great person and an example of the kind of person who puts challenges ahead of himself.”

It is easy to get swept up in the amazing Insta shots and Jack Owens’ own charm, Farrell says, but his work is something that goes much deeper—directly translating to less discomfort for Fox Chase lung cancer patients.