More than 100 law enforcement and emergency services personnel pedalled to Meadowridge School during the 20th annual Cops for Cancer Tour de Coast fundraiser on Tuesday.
The team of 40 cyclists were greeted by hundreds of cheering students, who lined the roadway leading to the front of the school, holding out their hands for high-fives.
Tour de Coast will visit more than 60 communities across the province during the two-week bike ride raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society and to promote childhood cancer research and programs supporting children and their families.
Specifically, the tour is raising money for pediatric cancer research and Camp Goodtimes, a summer camp for children with cancer at Loon Lake in Maple Ridge, to escape the hospitals and their daily struggles with the disease.
Last year the tour raised $501,000.
Yesterday, the cyclists also visited Thomas Haney secondary. They stayed at the Ramada Pitt Meadows Hotel in Pitt Meadows and Boston Pizza sponsored their dinner. They also made a stop at Coast Capital Savings in the Meadowtown Shopping Centre. Staff there will continue to fundraise in support of the tour until Oct. 6.
Cpl. Tony Vanags and Cnst. Gregg Holland, with the Ridge Meadows RCMP detachment, are the local representatives in the ride that not only include members of the RCMP, but different municipal forces, border service guards and paramedics.
This is Cpl. Vanags first time on the ride and he is finding it challenging.
“To be honest, I wasn’t as in shape as I’ld hoped to be. Due to the fires this summer, we were called away and so my training wasn’t as good as it should have been,” said Vanags, who has been training since December on stationary bikes and elliptical machines at the gym.
Cpl. Vanags and Cnst. Holland started training together in May on the road, beginning with 20-km rides and working their way up to 140 km.
During the tour, they have to do 800 km in eight days. Each day they ride 60 to 140 km, depending on how many stops the tour makes.
That is nothing, though, when Cpl. Vanags hears the stories of the junior riders, the children who either have cancer or have survived it.
Cancer survivor Casey Wright, a Grade 11 student at Thomas Haney secondary, was the junior rider for the Maple Ridge portion.
Wright was diagnosed with a brain tumor as an infant. Over the years he has undergone multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy.
In February 2013, Wright had brain surgery at B.C. Children’s Hospital and medical staff were able to remove the tumor.
However, Wright suffered a stroke in the weeks following the surgery that paralyzed his right side and he had to learn how to swallow, speak and walk again.
Since then, doctors have told him he is now 95 per cent cancer-free.
“What some of those guys have gone through is heartbreaking,” said Vanags, whose parents and both in-laws survived cancer.
“To see kids with cancer is even worse. Anything we can do to help eradicate this, this is the least I can do,” he continued.
Vanags and Holland have been fundraising together and have so far raised $14,000.
In 20 years, the ride in B.C. has raised more than $40 million for pediatric cancer research and Camp Goodtimes.
