TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A South Carolina man passed through Tampa on Saturday riding hundreds of thousands of miles for a rare disease.<\/p>\n
It was the final day of Patrick Cornell’s year-long journey.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Patrick Cornell rode 200k miles on his motorcycle in one year to raise awareness and money for\u00a0Myotonic Dystrophy
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Cornell’s wife’s family has the rare disease
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Cornell stopped in Tampa before hitting the major milestone in Fort Myers
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He raised at least $130,000 that will be donated to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation<\/p>\n
He stopped at Bert\u2019s Buccaneer Indian motorcycle dealership before hitting the 200,000 milestone in Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
When he arrived at Bert\u2019s, he had 132 miles left to complete 200,000 miles on his motorcycle. He calls the bike \u201cPappy\u201d and it\u2019s decked out with the accessories needed for long distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a tablet for weather, radar, navigation and a couple of satellite trackers,\u201d said Cornell.<\/p>\n
On May 1, 2025, Cornell set out to ride 125,000 miles in 125 days to raise $125,000 for Myotonic Dystrophy. His wife\u2019s whole family has the condition, which is known to cause muscle atrophy and weakness.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody thinks of muscles, biceps, triceps; they don\u2019t think about your heart, your lungs, your esophagus, it affects all of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But after 125 days, the fundraising goal wasn\u2019t met, so Cornell had a new idea. Only this time, it was even bigger.<\/p>\n
\u201c200,000 miles, one year, one bike, one man, one mission for Myotonic Dystrophy,\u201d Cornell said.<\/p>\n
With the help of social media, Cornell has raised at least $130,000. The proceeds are going to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife is very anxiously awaiting me to come home. She has told me a number of times how proud she is of what I\u2019ve done and what we\u2019ve accomplished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After a brief stop, Cornell and his crew were back on the road to Fort Myers to complete the mission<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to be like when I finish. But there\u2019s definitely going to be some emotions that I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not expecting,\u201d Cornell said.<\/p>\n
The journey ends at 200,000 miles, but the Cornell\u2019s impact will last a lifetime.<\/p>\n
Right now, there is no cure for Myotonic Dystrophy; but there are treatment options that can help manage symptoms.<\/p>\n
Fundraising efforts like these help fund more research to expand those treatment options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A South Carolina man passed through Tampa on Saturday riding hundreds of thousands of miles for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,3948,6466,1548,571,115,139,135,137,136,1374],"class_list":{"0":"post-246740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-good-news","9":"tag-app-health","10":"tag-app-latest-health-stories","11":"tag-good-news","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-tampa","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news","18":"tag-tyler-oneill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}