Viviane Pedruco’s BellRinger journey began long before she ever imagined herself on a bike again. During BellRinger 2023, she was posted at the finish line cheering on her colleagues riding for Team Perkins&Will, completely unaware that stage 4 cancer was already moving through her body. While she wasn’t officially on the roster that first year, she found a way to contribute quietly, rallying donations and showing up in every way she could. She stood with cowbells, fellow co-workers, and friends,, not knowing that her own life was about to change in every imaginable way.
By the time BellRinger 2024 rolled around, the diagnosis had arrived, chemotherapy was behind her, and she was in the early stages of immunotherapy and hormone treatment — therapies she’ll likely continue for many years. She joined as a Virtual Rider that year and ended up becoming one of the top individual fundraisers among her group. But for Viviane, it was being at the finish line again, cheering on her team, that shifted everything. Bald from treatment but steady in spirit, she stood among Riders, survivors, and families, surrounded by energy she describes as “almost like a hug.” She watched people cross the line, each carrying their own reason for being there, and something in her clicked.
Viviane didn’t just feel inspired — she made a decision. That same day at the 2024 finish line, sitting with colleagues and friends, she turned to teammate David Kay and said she was buying a bike — and she did. She left BellRinger and went straight to REI, purchasing the bike she’ll ride this fall in BellRinger 2025. She knew immediately she wouldn’t look back. For her, it wasn’t a symbolic gesture but a reclaiming of movement, identity, and the joy she had once found in riding.
That love began in Rio de Janeiro, where she grew up biking through the Copacabana neighborhood. As a child and teenager, she rode everywhere — down to the beach with umbrellas and towels, weaving through the city streets with ease and freedom. Before she ever entered the worlds of aviation, interior design, or cancer treatment, cycling was simply a part of her life. Rediscovering it at BellRinger felt like returning to something she hadn’t even realized she’d lost.
Long before she ever heard of BellRinger, Viviane had already lived one life and started another. Born and raised in Rio, she initially believed architecture was her path, only to follow her family’s deep ties to aviation. Straight out of high school, she entered flight school and went on to fly helicopters for almost 20 years, primarily for the oil and gas sector. She piloted heavy aircraft, transporting offshore crews to rigs, working in a demanding industry where precision was everything. From 1998 to 2018, flying was her profession, identity, and community.
Losing her father to cancer in 2010 changed the course of that life. At 29, she found herself reconsidering the next several decades — what she wanted, what she could sustain, and how she would transition. She loved aviation, but the toll of the job was immense, and grief sharpened her clarity. She began saving intentionally for a career change, giving herself eight years to prepare financially and emotionally to start over. At 38, she entered graduate school for interior design, rediscovering the design instincts she’d had as a teenager. She graduated at 41 and stepped into a new profession with humility, determination, and purpose.
Perkins&Will had always been the dream. She had followed the firm for research and design inspiration, drawn to its commitment to sustainability, diversity, and community impact. As an immigrant, a Latina, someone older than most of her peers entering the industry, she knew she embodied many identities at once. But rather than being defined by any of them, she found a workplace that embraced them. Joining the DC studio offered not just employment but belonging, with friends, mentors, and advocates who made it possible for her to ultimately focus on treatment without fear.
That support became crucial after her diagnosis. Cancer treatment is long-term and, in the U.S., often financially destabilizing. Perkins&Will gave her room to heal without compromising her role, her dignity, or her future in the industry. She credits the studio with providing the reassurance and community that allowed her to manage both her health and her life. She says often that she doesn’t know if she would have had the same support anywhere else.
Physically, returning to movement was daunting. Cancer had affected her spine, and in the aftermath of treatment she lost significant muscle after weeks of limited mobility. Hormone therapy left her joints aching, and high-impact workouts were no longer possible. But biking offered a way back. It strengthened muscles without overloading her joints and allowed her to be outdoors, something essential to her wellbeing as someone born in Rio’s open air and coastal light. Cycling felt like restoration, not recovery.
Now, in 2025, she’s no longer on the sidelines. Viviane will be a part of the ride she once watched from the finish line, this time with the bike she bought one year prior on the day that she said she would. She’s not chasing speed or distance; she’s just soaking in what it means to be a BellRinger Rider: to feel the cheers from the other side of the barricades, to experience the rest stops and the community as a participant, to help end cancer. She knows every rider arrives with a story—someone they’ve lost, something they’ve survived, a reason they refuse to stay home. For her, riding is proof of what research makes possible. It is life, extended.
BellRinger began as something she supported because it mattered. Now it is something she rides because she can. And when she crosses the finish line this year during BellRinger 2025, it will not just be a return to the sport she once loved, it will be a full circle moment years in the making.
