Ride Hard, Breathe Easy: 3.5 Ideas from John Matthews
3 min readSep 21, 2024
“Don’t Manage Your Fears, Expand Your Comfort Zone.”
John Matthews is the founder of the non-profit Ride Hard, Breathe Easy.
John started RHBE in memory of his late mom, Kathleen Matthews. Before his mom lost her life to lung cancer, John promised her he would “do something” for lung cancer patients.
John and his team have raised nearly $1 Million Dollars and helped thousands of lung cancer patients as they undergo lifesaving treatment.
3.5 Ideas from John Matthews:
1) What Do We Need to Know About Lung Cancer?
- “Lung cancer is the #1 cancer killer in the world. It’s the #1 cancer killer in the United States. It’s the #1 cancer killer in Idaho, Pennsylvania, Florida, West Virginia, you name the state. Lung Cancer kills more men and women in each and every state in this country than any other cancer.”
- “Half of the women in the world today who are diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked. The five year survival rate for lung cancer is 20%.”
- “Even though it’s the #1 cancer killer and has the lowest five year survival rate of any other common cancer, lung cancer still receives proportionally much less funding than other cancers.”
2) How Did You Get the Idea of Biking Across the USA and Raising $1 Million Dollars?
- “I’ve done marathons. I did bike rides with my brothers, but I wouldn’t train that hard. I would stop every 10 miles, eat, drink, and get back on the bike and take my time. I did the “Cancer Ride” in 2016 and before I did, I said to myself, ‘If I can finish this one, I’m going across country’. Then about a week or two later I told my family, ‘I’m riding my bike across the country.’”
- “My wife just looks at me and says, ‘You really don’t have a bike. I said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.’”
- ‘“I’ve learned in life that if you said you are going to do it, that’s a strategy, words can work for you, and it does for me. When you say something like that, you can’t back away from it. And so that started a whole process.”
3) Why Do Human Beings Need to Experience a Trauma to Find — Focus, Clarity, and Purpose?
- “It’s a great question. I tend to be pretty focused, but you become even more focused, almost single minded. It becomes passion. And I also think , as you get older, you realize if I want to make a difference, and those three words are etched in my brain, there’s a certain point in life where you can do that.”
- “For me, what came together was my mom’s diagnosis, and my son was older, so if I wanted to do something a little audacious, ambitious, crazy, as my wife would say, this was the time of my life I could do it. If I waited much longer, it could be harder. If I did it sooner, Then I’m out of my son’s life for a period of time.”
- “I think it’s a lot of stuff coming together. For me, you love your mom. You got to do something for her.”
3.5) If You Could have Everyone Take One Lesson Away, What would it be?
- “There’s 3 Elements:
- 1) Know what’s important to you.
- 2) Do What Matters.
- 3) Know Yourself.”
