International Day of Families

How does YOUR support help?

Today marks the International Day of Families.

On this special day, we want to say THANK YOU for being a part of the GCC community and supporting families impacted by cancer. 🙏

Every year, more than 1,700 Canadian families receive the heartbreaking news, "your child has cancer".

But your support in Great Cycle Challenge is giving these families hope that safer and more effective treatments can be found to fight kids' cancer and save little lives. ❤️

Today, we want to show how your fundraising efforts have helped a courageous little girl and her family...

Iris was diagnosed with refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in June 2022, when she was only 3 years old.

Over the past 3 years I have participated in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada. With your support we have helped Canadian children, and their families as they fight cancer. Children just like Iris should be outside playing, not in hospital fighting for their little lives.

That is why I have participated.

Year #1 I was too weak from years of treatments to make much impact.

Year #2 I had a bladder tumor removed and then in the middle of the official Great Cycle Challenge Canada I was in hospital to have a kidney removed.

Year #3 I rode from Canmore Alberta over the mountains to Vancouver. I also had another tumor removed from my urethra when I got home.

This is Year #4. Let's make it a cancer free year as I try to ride 500km through the month of August, and raise $2500 to help kids like Iris.

May Kick-Off!

The first week of May wasn't spectacular...

Now that we seem to have turned the weather corner, and sunshine is a more common sight, everything is greening up, and warming up! The added warmth makes it much nicer to get out and be more active.

We have been on a couple rides this spring, and have been able to bring the girls along on a couple rides now that I have pulled my trailer out of the garage. The dogs love being a part of our family, and genuinely seem to enjoy the exercise from a solid trot along the river paths. Piper was tired enough to accept a free ride the first day out.... LOL Kimber came a second day with me alone and showed her true loyalty. Once on the path with noone around I let her off the leash and she just stayed right with me, uninterested in doing anything but run with me.

This is the kind of dog everyone should have.

April Showers...

Well here we are, April 30, 2024 and the weather has decided to bless us with some much needed moisture. It's in the form of wet snow, isn't enough to accumulate, but it is snow nonetheless.

I won't be going for a bike ride today due to this and a few other factors. I will however be going for my monthly bloodwork ahead of chemo on Thursday. The bloodwork is to make sure I'm not battling any infections, and that my immune system is working properly and efficiently enough to receive treatment as scheduled.

As part of my treatment plan I will be going for a regularly scheduled cystoscopy on May 7th. If you don't know what that is..... it is a camera inserted into my bladder so the urologist can take a detailed look at how the lining of my bladder is healing from the most recent surgery, and to keep an eye on how the lining of my bladder is responding to the chemo. It's a necessary evil after so many bladder surgeries to remove cancerous tumors over the years.

Each treatment reminds me of why I have participated in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada to help fight children's cancer, and help the kids and their families navigate the new world of appointments, treatments, and WINS as they come.

I can't adequately THANK you all for the incredible support over the years, but I do need to continue asking for that support to continue. Kids should be outside playing, and riding bikes, not going through this battle like myself and far too many others have, and still are. Your donations really do make a difference.

Thank You.

WooHoo! Here we go again!

With the incredible support last year, hot on the heals of the previous years, 2024 has started with another Cancer Charity Bike Riding plan!

I won't be pushing myself quite like I did in 2023 when I rode through the mountains to Vancouver, but I will be riding to help the kids nonetheless. They absolutely have my support, and respect. Fighting cancer is the most difficult thing I've had to do. I couldn't imagine looking out a hospital window just wanting to be able to join the other kids playing.

That's why we ride.

Let's do this!