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Easing the Burden: Why We Ride for Island Families

Any family blindsided by a childhood cancer diagnosis is devastated, but those who live on Vancouver Island are often hit extra-hard.

Here, the emotional toll can be compounded by added financial pressures and feelings of isolation as, sometimes, the family is physically torn apart by the need to move the child to another city for treatment.

The Island Kids Cancer Association sees that all the time: an ailing child is helicoptered to treatment in a faraway hospital, one parent quits work and moves nearby, the other parent tries to hold down the fort at home. Even when no one has to move, caring for an sick child can mean income drops, unexpected expenses pile up and the mortgage still needs paying, all while the family is in emotional crisis. Even after treatment is finished, it can take years for a shattered family to put the pieces back together.

That’s why the End2End cycling relay exists: to help the IKCA ease that burden. The June 16-18 event will see a relay team of cyclists ride from Victoria to Port Hardy and back non-stop — that’s more than 1,000 kilometres in less than 48 hours — to raise money that will allow IKCA to help families in need.

This will be the second time the relay has been staged. The first, in June 2025, raised more than $110,000 for the Victoria-based non-profit. That ride was dreamed up by Victoria’s Andy Dunstan, a longtime childhood-cancer campaigner. He presented it to his employer, the Trek Bicycle Store in Victoria, which quickly volunteered to become End2End’s organizing sponsor.

The store had sponsored and been involved in many cycling-related fundraisers over the years, leaving it with a wonderful resource: a cadre of people with the experience, passion and know-how to pull off an effort like End2End. The people in the Trek family – employees, customers, members of the broader cycling community — were soon joined by others who were keen to be part of this Island-based solution to an Island problem.

They did so knowing that all the money they helped raised would not only stay on Vancouver Island but would go straight to the cause. End2End is a totally volunteer effort. There are no paid staff, and almost all the operating expenses have been absorbed by generous sponsors.

As we begin our second campaign, we would be profoundly grateful if you chose to be part of this journey, too. That could mean anything from making a tax-deductible donation on this website, to becoming a sponsor, to staging or attending one of the fundraising events that will be held in advance of June’s ride.

It’s really just a matter of neighbours helping neighbours in need. Or, as our motto says, Islanders helping Islanders.