Team PH Germany to raise PH awareness in a 7-day cross-country tour
We are catching up with another one of our sister teams: Team PH Germany.
Team PH Germany is led by Axel Schauf and Katrin Katrin Hetebrügge. Axel and Katrin are parents of a young girl who has PH. They are impassioned to bring their friends with them on their race against PH!
In the following interview, we learn more about their team, their upcoming event, and where they’re heading in 2017.
Q: So tell us about Team PH Germany. How did you form your team? Who are your team members?
Our team consists out of friends of us. They all know us and our family background. Everyone we asked was eager to join us. They all like the idea to be able to DO something for us and the Ph community.
These are our Team members:
- Andrea Weiler (Darmstadt)
- Nick Trautmann (Winsen)
- Benjamin Trocha (Hamburg)
- Tobias Goldhammer (Berlin)
- Thomas Müller (München)
- Matthias Heuft (Bonn)
- Daniel Hambuch (Bonn)
- Sylva Körber (Braunschweig)
- Christian Stern (Braunschweig)
- Matthias Klöppel (Uelversheim)
- Susi Melcher (Rodgau)
- Isa Czerny (Reinheim)
- Joe Czerny (Reinheim)
- Marc Ziegler (Darmstadt)
Nine of these friends will join us on our Team PH Germany Tour, the others will ride with us at Rad am Ring in July.
Marc Ziegler is on a special mission for us. We writes articles about our Team and contacts newspapers etc. Before our PH Germany tour starts, two articles were published in German newspapers about our tour, and the hospital in Munich mentions our tour on their website.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with Team PH Germany?
Our main goal is raising awareness. We think that it is important to make a rare disease like PH better known. It may help with the first diagnosis and makes a mostly invisible illness better known.
Q: Are you raising money? For what cause? How can people donate? How can more people get involved in your cause?
Yes, we also raise money. You can donate via betterplace, this is the link
https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/40534-radteam-phenomenal-hope-fur-eine-zukunft-ohne-lungenhochdruck
The money goes to the German PH Association, the phev.
They support PH patients in Germany. For example they organize patient meetings, also for families with PH kids. And they support scientific research as well, which is important to find a cure one day. That’s our goal!
Q: Tell us about your tour! When does it start, end, and what cities will you pass through? How far will you ride each day? If people want to see you along the way how will they find you?
Our tour starts in Munich at a hospital. The principal consultant of the hospital in Neuwittelsbach is an expert in PH (Dr. Hanno Leuchte) will meet us at the start.
There will be 7 stages before we reach the UKE in Hamburg and the head consultant there, Dr. Hans Klose.
In total we will ride 1,000 kilometers with 10,000 metres of climbing. That means stages between 130 and 170km a day.
We have a tour van with the team logo and the sponsors on it that will transport our luggage and our kids.
You can follow our tour on our facebook page. Each morning we will present a person with PH whom we will dedicate that stage. In the evening there´ll be a race report.
