A handful of Coast residents were among the 2,252 cyclists on the second annual 253 km Ride to Conquer Cancer June 19 and 20, cycling from Surrey to just north of Seattle and raising $9.2 million for cancer research in B.C.
Sechelt resident and ride participant Sue Spurgeon said her inspiration came from reading an article about the event last year. At the time, a close friend of hers, Rita Bruneski, had been battling cancer for two years.
"I said, 'I can do that, I can do it for Rita - to honour her,'" Spurgeon recalls.
Sechelt's Cheryl Sloane, who trained for the ride with Spurgeon, said she participated, quite simply, to help towards a cure for the disease.
"There's not one person I know who hasn't been affected by cancer," she said.
Coast resident Margaret Webb said her inspiration came from losing her husband - well-loved Chatelech Secondary School counsellor Don Lewis - to the disease three years ago. Lewis was 57.
The three women started training last fall, taking spin classes two and three times a week, and then moving into road riding in January and February. Also prior to the ride, each of them raised at least $2,500 for the BC Cancer Foundation - the money required to participate in the event.
Just two months before the ride, the disease claimed another life: Spurgeon's friend Bruneski. She was 56.
"I was hoping she'd get cured, and then when I knew that wasn't possible, I thought, 'Well, maybe she'll live to see that the ride is complete and that I did it,'" Spurgeon said. "But that didn't happen either."
The three women said the ride, which took them from Guildford Town Centre Mall in Surrey to Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA, was both grueling and full of inspiration.
"It was overwhelming and very heart-wrenching," Sloane said. "You didn't see one person in a bad mood no matter how bad they were hurting. Everybody had a big smile on their face."
Webb described seeing cancer survivors, flying yellow flags on the backs of their bikes, amongst the riders.
"It was emotional to see so many people," she said. "And I think every single person there had been affected in a really personal way."
Webb said the highlight of the ride for her was knowing the impact the dollars raised would have on cancer research.
"[It was] knowing that we had raised a huge amount of money and knowing that it would hopefully make a difference," she said, "so other people won't have to go through the same suffering and pain as people who get cancer and the people they leave behind."
The third annual Ride to Conquer Cancer is set for June 18 and 19, 2011. Information is available at www.conquercancer.ca or 1-888-771-BIKE.
