Becerra Rides to Inform Community About Hepatitis C
Gilroy – Russell Becerra’s doctors have warned him not to do it. He is too sick. He should not be taking the risk.
All the signs point to why he should not do it. His health is worsening. He has cirrhosis of the liver and has been put on the liver transplant list, waiting for a donor.
But Becerra is determined to ride a bike across the state to educate people about the hepatitis C virus and its devastating effects on the body. So starting June 10 the long-time Gilroyan will begin his ride in Santa Monica and finish his trek at the California/Arizona border. This is the second leg of his six leg journey. The first leg started in Gilroy and ended in Santa Monica back in 2002. Although this is only the second leg he is afraid this will be his last.
“I do it out of my own heart because I care. Because I know how people who have (the virus) feel,” said Becerra, who listed off depression and disillusionment as feelings many people get when they learn they contracted the virus.
“You’re scared,” he said, “because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
HCV can be contracted through blood-to-blood contract. The virus is easily transmitted through the sharing of needles and razors. Becerra pays special attention to this. He wants to make sure that neither his wife nor his four kids obtain the disease from him so he makes sure they never share such things as his tooth brush or toenail clippers.
According to the Hepatitis C Support Project, about 80 percent of those infected with HCV end up chronically ill. However, most of those lead normal lives.
The problem, Becerra said, is that most people who acquire the disease have no idea that they have it. Hence the bike ride he is putting together to make more people aware of the virus.
Becerra had no idea that he was carrying the virus until he started to feel fatigued back in 1991. When he went for medical assistance he tested positive for hepatitis C, which could have been in his body for years without him ever knowing.
To this day Becerra still doesn’t know how he contracted the disease. He admits that he experimented with drugs in the late 1970s and early ’80s. But he said it could have come from a blood transfusion he received during a past surgery or from the ink or needles used for his numerous tattoos.
His suffering from the disease and the fact that to this day he still does not know how he contracted the virus has led him to push other people to get tested.
“There’s a lot of people who don’t know they have it because they don’t go get checked,” Becerra said.
Becerra said the first leg of his bike tour was a complete success. He would ride for miles and then he would set up a table and he would talk to anyone who would listen about why he was doing this ride and why they should go get tested. He said people were responsive and asked a lot of questions. They wanted to know how they could contract the disease. Is there was a cure? He told them there is not.
Although she supports her husband, Rachel Becerra does not understand why he has to do this tour. She accompanied her husband to the liver specialist who told him that Becerra should not ride. The doctor disapproved of the idea but did not tell Becerra not to do it.
Becerra was put on the liver donor list a few weeks back. But the list is “super long” she said, and does not go by whose name was put on the list first. It goes buy health, and according to the doctors, Becerra is as healthy as they come, at least for those with hepatitis C that is. So even though his health is slowly fading he is still too healthy to receive a new liver, but he may not be healthy enough to do the ride.
But Becerra is determined to do this. He said that even if just one person goes and gets tested the whole tour would have been a success.
“It’s something I need to do not just for myself but for the community,” he said. “I’ll do anything to do this ride.”
