A long ride for a good cause

By Casey Ramsdell, Globe Correspondent

At 4 a.m. today, a police officer hopped on his bike in Boston and started on an unusual mission. James Elliott, 37, planned to pedal from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a 240-mile trek, to raise funds for people with cancer.

By 6 p.m., Elliott, who works in Hartford, Conn., reported by cellphone that he had made it to the Bronx and was awaiting a police escort to his final destination.

"The weather worked out well. It's been a good experience," said Elliott, who made the journey in memory of his parents, who both died of cancer when he was a young man.

So far, his ride had raised about $3,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, he said.

"This is big to me. It's my way of giving back," he said.

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