Two women cycling from Vancouver to Toronto to raise money and awareness for fighting pulmonary fibrosis are passing through Swift Current right now.

Olivia Mendicino and Julie Ann Chiodo - former University of Pennsylvania soccer teammates and roommates - are splitting the distance.

Both have been affected by the disease. Mendicino's father died from it in 2014, and an uncle of Chiodo's recently had a lung transplant.

But Mendicino said the pulmonary fibrosis sometimes gets looked over.

"There's just not a lot going out there right now. There's not a lot of awareness about it. And mainly from what we hear, it's because it affects mainly the elderly, so there's a lot of other diseases out there that kind of get a lot of attention and have less people affected, but mainly because it may affect children or middle-aged people."

The women are halfway to their fundraising goal is $20,000, which they'd use to create a small research project grant.

Each cyclist will ride 2,300 kilometres, and the total journey, which includes five provinces, is expected to take 32 days.

"We kind of feel like we came out of the hardest part there in BC with all those major passes. Obviously that was challenging, but it was fun with beautiful views," said Mendicino. "We went through Alberta fairly quickly, which was great, but we're making some good headway. Right now we're just trying to make our way through Saskatchewan. We've had some pretty good weather. It is a little bit hot the last couple days, so the heat's been getting to us, and a little bit of wind too, but we're trying our best to make it through the prairies because we feel that Ontario is the halfway point for us."

Mendicino added that the journey has been a great way to see Canada, and that they are enjoying the prairie landscape.

You can check out their webpage here.