GERMANTOWN, Tenn. — Moving one pedal at a time, a Germantown man is using his journey with cancer to inspire others to keep moving forward.

And in just a few weeks, he’s embarking on another grueling journey, to raise awareness about multiple myeloma.

Jered Haddad is an avid mountain biker, but in just a few weeks, he’s going on a grueling ride through the island nation of Iceland.

“What really makes it grueling is not the terrain itself necessarily but the weather conditions. Iceland is brutal,” he said.

Jered won’t be alone in his journey. Near the end of August, he’ll join a group of riders who share the same desire to raise awareness about the disease that almost prevented him from ever riding a bike again.

Four years ago, Jered says, for several months, he had pain in his bones and aches running down his leg. Thinking the pain was the result of a sports injury, he went to a doctor.

In 2021, he says he learned there was a tumor on his spine, and he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. 

“My first thought was the amount of unfinished business that I had and loose ends,” he said.

According to the National Cancer Institute, multiple myeloma is a plasma cell cancer that happens when abnormal plasma cells form tumors in the bone.

These tumors may prevent the bone marrow from making enough healthy blood cells while also weakening the bone and releasing calcium into the blood.

The institute says it is not curable, but it is treatable. 

Jered says he started seeking different treatments here locally and in other parts of the country.

“I was traveling back and forth to Mayo Clinic where ultimately they identified me as a candidate for this cutting-edge clinical trial for a therapy called CAR-T genetic cell therapy,” he said.

According to the American Cancer Society, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, more commonly known as CAR T-cell therapy, is a way to get immune cells called T cells to attack the cancer cells.

“What they do is they take just a component of your immune cells, the T-cells. They genetically modify it in a lab. What takes about five weeks to do that, they then turn that around and put it back into your body. It’s amazing is what it is,” he said.

Three years later…Jered is in remission and preparing for his second ride to Iceland with the International Myeloma Foundation.

He says he is riding to raise money to help the organization fulfill its mission of helping patients like him live life to the fullest.

Jered says he wants his journey to be a testament to what can happen when you keep pushing forward

“For me, the ability to get back on my bike again, I never lose sight of how fortunate I am to have access to that and just to be healthy to do it,” he said.

► You can follow Jered’s journey preparing for the ride and learn more about the disease here.