Cyclist helps fight against MS

After bicycling 187,000 miles in search of donations to support multiple sclerosis treatment, Thomas Beasley knows what type of businesses to hit up for money.

Auto repair shops, hair salons, bars and tattoo parlors – in that order.

Check by check, Beasley has raised more than $102,400 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society during 15 years of cross-country cycling.

Now on the last leg of his last journey, the Atlanta native hopes to raise at least $550 during a three-day stop in Spokane.

Wearing a black jersey and riding shorts, the 37-year-old cruised North Division Street on his blue Cannondale mountain bike Tuesday afternoon, looking for donations.

A hair salon manager turned him down, but the owner of a gun store signed Beasley’s first Spokane check, which he placed in a plastic bag inside one of several fanny packs.

Beasley supports himself with donations from friends and gift cards, merchandise and food he receives from a list of larger corporations. But “mom and pop” businesses give the most to his charity of choice, he said.

A disease of the central nervous system, MS occurs when a person’s immune system attacks the sheath around nerves, eating it away and causing scarring that affects the brain’s ability to signal muscles. It’s not contagious or inherited, but it can cause loss of balance, tremors and even paralysis.

MS has no known cause and no cure, said Beth Aebly, development manager for the North Central States Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Beasley donates the money he raises through that chapter, which funnels it into research at the University of Iowa and elsewhere.

“What this guy has done is really quite unique,” said Aebly. “He’s basically spent 10 years not working” so he could help the cause.

Raised by his grandmother, Beasley began bicycling for transportation. He later started training for races, working at carnivals so that he could ride in the mornings.

He started riding to support the society after the man who was training him to ride in the Tour de France died with MS in 1990. Beasley wanted to honor his memory and to keep training.

“Back then nobody talked about MS,” he said.

“I didn’t have any idea about it.”

He later focused on raising money full time, setting a goal of $100,000. He met that goal this trip, which he started in February in Arizona so that he could avoid areas ravaged by hurricanes last summer.

Beasley plans to ride through Idaho, Wyoming and on – all the way back to Atlanta, where he hopes to open a bike shop and write a book about his travels.

Since entering Washington, he’s raised about $2,500, with stops in Seattle, the Tri-Cities and elsewhere.

Beasley, who was staying at a hotel near the airport Tuesday, made the sweaty trip to the Circuit City on Division in less than two hours. He did catch a ride for part of the way, as he sometimes does when he’s between cities or out of supplies.

He typically rides about 50 miles per day with 180 pounds of gear he usually carries in a trailer. A sign on the trailer asks motorists to stop and donate.

Years of riding have taken a toll on his bike – the third one he’s used on the trips, he said.

“Everything on the bike has been worn out at least once or twice,” he said. “The only thing that’s original is the frame.”

It’s also been hard on his body. Beasley said he’s been hit by cars nine times.

Beasley received several free country music CDs and cartoon DVDs from Circuit City to help occupy his time on the road.

He wears a CD player on his hip and has a portable DVD player to use during down times.

“It really keeps me from getting crazy,” he said.

He didn’t have any luck at Wal-Mart, but Eric Behlke, owner of Mountain Shadow Arms, gave him a check.

“I have a friend that has MS, and obviously it’s getting a lot of national press now because of … embryonic stem cell research,” Behlke said.

“I think it’s a worthy, worthy cause.”

Beasley may be contacted at the Courtyard Marriot downtown.