A team of eight cyclists will bike a round trip from Victoria to Port Hardy to raise funds for families with children battling cancer.
The inaugural End2End relay will see each rider pedal a total of 250km on June 17-19 to make the 1,000 km trip. It will be an overnight trip where each rider will pedal for about two hours before resting for six and doing it again.
Chris Day grew up in the Cowichan Valley and says he is riding in memory of his older brother, who died from cancer at 14.
“I am just hoping that even if we can help a little bit to alleviate a little bit of that stress that it puts on families so they can a hundred per cent focus on just helping their child get through their diagnosis and the treatment and that’s just one less thing that they need to think about,” he says.
The event is aiming to raise $100,000 for the Island Kids Cancer Association, an organization that offers financial and mental health support to families of young cancer patients.
“We understand the challenges, know the system and we can help, but as a small non-profit we have limited ability to raise the money we need to fund our programs,” says IKCA executive director Susan Kerr.
Day says he would like to see the event become annual, but for now he and the group are focused on getting through the first year of the ride.
“I am hopeful that we can keep this going, bring a lot more attention to it and get a lot more people behind it next year as well,” he says.
Day’s first segment of the End2End journey should see him ride through Duncan on the evening of June 17.
