Sobi Liberate Life Bike Ride raises funds and awareness for haemophilia

A team of cyclists from Sobi have cycled from Bonn to Hamburg from 29 August – 1 September to help raise funds for people with haemophilia as well as awareness about the condition.

The 2019 Liberate Life Bike Ride is the fourth Sobi charity ride to raise funds for the European Haemophilia Consortium (EHC). The EHC is an international non-profit organisation representing around 90,000 people across 27 countries in the EU. Its goals include improving quality of life for people with bleeding disorders and improving understanding and treatment of bleeding disorders.

As well as raising funds for the EHC, the Liberate Life Bike Ride also aims to build awareness about haemophilia and the benefits of an active life for people with the condition. Although exercise is good for everybody, regular physical activity, physiotherapy and exercise can be particularly beneficial for people living with haemophilia. These activities increase muscle strength and improve joint stability which can greatly reduce the risk of injury, bleeds and joint damage. It is important that anyone with haemophilia talks to their treatment team about how to personalise their treatment to enable them to become more active according to their individual goals.

Coordinator of the event, Marijn van der Sluijs, said that the Bike Ride is also an important opportunity to highlight Sobi’s Liberate Life vision for people living with haemophilia.

“Liberate Life is a vision we want to share not only with those living with haemophilia, but also with their family members and friends, as well as the professionals who care for them. By encouraging and motivating the haemophilia community across the globe to expect more from life and reach for the many opportunities that advances in care have made possible, Sobi believes the status quo of today’s haemophilia care can be challenged,” he said.

The cyclists are a group of 13 Sobi employees from across Europe, a mix of dedicated semi-professionals and people who normally just bike to work. The Liberate Life Bike Ride is not a race, but rather a team event where all team members work together to ensure everyone reaches the final destination. The team has ridden over 520 km over three and a half days through Wuppertal, Bielefeld and Verden on the way from Bonn to Hamburg.

“The EHC welcomes all initiatives that help spotlight the benefits of being physically active, in the right individualised way, for each person with a bleeding disorder,” said Amanda Bok, CEO of the EHC. “We actively encourage our patients to see that it’s not impossible for them to be active in their own ways, in fact it’s necessary for their futures. That’s why the EHC created Physical Activity Grants for our member organisations to use towards their national physical health activities, and initiatives such as this one from Sobi go a long way in helping to support those programmes.”

About Liberate Life

The Liberate Life vision reflects Sobi’s long-term commitment to a life beyond haemophilia, to people with haemophilia being able to raise their ambitions from stability to possibility and live life to the fullest. It is also an inspirational call-to-action for involvement from the broader haemophilia community. Read more at www.LiberateLife.eu