By David Chapman
Staff Writer
Realtors spend a lot of their time on the road, putting numerous miles on their vehicles as part of doing business.
Last year, Cliff Broughton hit the road and put thousands of miles behind him for charity — on his bike.
Broughton, a Realtor since 2002 with Prudential Network Realty’s Fleming Island office, made a cross country trek to raise awareness for the Donna Hicken Foundation. The foundation assists women with breast cancer cover everyday expenses.
The idea to make a difference came to him after the cancer hit someone he knew.
“My office manager’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Broughton, “and I thought it was a good cause.”
Broughton is a retired Navy flight officer and was an avid cyclist. After retirement, though, he stopped riding and, after time, his health slipped.
With declining health and only 54, he visited a doctor who attempted to prescribe him medications but Broughton declined. Instead, he said, he’d get in shape and that’s when cycling came back into his life.
It was then he decided to get in shape and ride on a Journey for Hope from California to Jacksonville.
He trained for three months before it was time to fly to California with his bike and make his way back home to Ponte Vedra Beach. He admits he wasn’t really ready, though.
“I wasn’t in the shape I wanted to be when I left,” he said. “I had done some racing events in the past but I’d done touring in my life.”
Even with all his biking in college and the service, he said it was impossible to know what to expect so he improvised.
“It’s one of those things that are hard to prepare for. I kind of made it up as I went along,” he said.
He wasn’t alone on the trip. His wife, Karen, was with him in spirit and the two talked nightly. Karen is also a Realtor at the Fleming Island branch of Prudential Network Realty.
“I was here biting my nails and hoping the entire time,” she said.
He would dictate stories about the day and she’d transcribe them into a daily journal that she posted on the internet.
There were some rough parts, especially a barren stretch in one Southwestern state.
“The worst time was in the Arizona and it was only the fourth night in,” he said. “I went 140 miles through the desert in a day and I dehydrated pretty badly. I didn’t bring enough water and couldn’t keep enough in me.”
Karen and other supporters contacted a Prudential office in Arizona and they were off to the rescue. After plenty of water and sleeping in later then normal, he was on the road again.
There were plenty of highlights, too.
“Beach Boulevard,” he joked. “Actually, I enjoyed Mobile, Ala. When you hit Mobile, you know you’re close to home and it felt great.”
He saw the remains of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, which surprised him, he said, because he remembered it so intact on a trip before. The changes were awe-inspiring.
In all, his trip to increase awareness about breast cancer and the Donna Hicken foundation raised around $114,000 from pledges.
He said he would like to do another bike ride for the foundation, this time possibly from Canada to Jacksonville.
“No deserts,” he said then laughed. “And the weather would be a lot nicer.”
He enjoys his profession in real estate, which he says is very gratifying and interesting but making a difference is something he cares about more. It’s one of the reasons he continued on when the odds were stacked against him in unforgiving desert.
“The time in Arizona I was thinking about packing it in,” he said. “Then I saw some of the e-mails that were coming in from people who were affected and those the foundation helped. They were tear jerkers. Knowing that I was making a hands-on difference was the best feeling in the world. I never realized how much it affects someone.”