A SoulCycle instructor opens up about her cancer journey and the significance of Equinox’s annual Cycle for Survival fundraiser.
When Melanie Griffith took her first SoulCycle class back in 2006, the brand hadn’t yet established the die-hard community it’s so well-known for. Back then, the cycling studio had just one location in New York City’s Upper West Side, and there was only one instructor leading class members through choreographed sprints and climbs. And yet, “when I walked in that first time, the teacher played a song that hooked into my heart,” Griffith recalls. “It just felt like a place I wanted to keep coming back to.”
And that she did. In 2009, Griffith became SoulCycle’s first rider to become an instructor. Today, she’s a master instructor and SoulCycle’s Senior Director of Brand Experience. Throughout it all, Griffith has been a staunch supporter of Cycle for Survival, a cycling fundraiser held by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in partnership with Equinox, which kicked off in February this year. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the annual events fund the hospital’s rare cancer research and clinical trials, a matter that hits close to home for Griffith.
Griffith’s Cancer Journey
In 2010, just a year after becoming a SoulCycle instructor, then-41-year-old Griffith was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma. The cancer was growing slowly, so she and her healthcare providers decided to sit back and keep an eye on the tumors for roughly a year, she says. At the time, she was so strong from her day job, she felt as though she was capable of anything, Griffith recalls.
“It’s a pretty stressful mental and physical place to be, where you have active cancer and you're just letting it grow,” she says. “But a lot of the things I learned, first as a rider and then as an instructor, prepared me physically and mentally to face that challenge. So I just started talking about it a lot in my classes as a way to motivate myself, motivate people around me.”
After a year of careful observation, Griffith underwent chemo treatment for the first time. During the four months she was receiving treatment, she recalls teaching fewer SoulCycle classes and leading them on the floor instead of in a bike seat. Still, Griffith remained unstoppable. “I didn't cut back out of fear or preservation,” she says. “There were a lot of people around me saying, ‘We should have somebody available to sub for you all the time,’ and I was like, ‘I don't think that's how it's gonna go. I think my body is built for this, my mind is built for this.’ And I showed up every day with a spirit of [doing] what’s right for me today. That time taught me to live really, really present and open-minded.”
That same mindset came back into play in 2019, when Griffith was re-diagnosed with cancer and later underwent an intestine resection surgery. Post-operation, she spent more than a week in the hospital recovering, then came the mental fatigue of additional surgery, treatment, and the COVID-19 pandemic, she recalls. Once again, her carpe diem-style perspective kept her afloat. “I believe that we are here to live this life, and I stayed present moment by moment, and with that, none of it was impossible,” says Griffith. “Gratitude and connection to my caregivers, to my family, and to my own belief system helped me thrive even during the hardest challenges.”
As she began to heal physically, Griffith took up walking and, eventually, riding her SoulCycle At-Home Bike. Just six months after her surgery, she filmed an on-demand cycling class for Equinox+, she says.
Supporting Cycle for Survival
Even before she experienced cancer herself, Griffith was dedicated to Cycle for Survival’s mission. Back in the early days of the fundraiser, which was founded in 2007, she participated in team rides. And over the next decade or so, she continued supporting and donating to the cause, she says.
But it wasn't until 2021 — when Cycle for Survival began streaming virtual rides in addition to its in-person offerings — that Griffith became an event instructor herself. In her eyes, deciding to lead a ride benefiting the hospital that provides her treatment was a no-brainer. “There's been a lot of cancer deaths in my family, and so my story is also a story of leaning into science and research to understand that pattern of death and now change it going forward for all of my surviving relatives, my children, and myself,” she explains. “I have never worked with an organization that funds — so significantly, impactfully, and directly — work that truly has immediate life-saving potential.”
While SoulCycle classes are known for being “a party on a bike,” the Cycle for Survival events are true blowouts, she says. “The joy, the dancing, the people who are coming together with stories, the unity in the community — it is straight-up the most celebratory party.”
Last year Griffith was one of the eight SoulCycle instructors leading the in-person Cycle for Survival event on May 6 at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, and she also participated in the NYC and virtual events. Along with an uplifting attitude, Griffith planned to bring her most authentic self to her Los Angeles ride.
“I’m going to show what cancer looks like in a healthy body, I’m going to talk about my journey, and I’m going to honor people who did not survive,” she said ahead of the event. “I’m going to try to use my voice and my story to motivate people to continue to fight, continue to celebrate life, and continue to live, regardless of the diagnosis or ultimate result.”