NEWS RELEASE
What: The beginning of the End2End cycling relay, in which a team of riders will pedal from Victoria to Port Hardy and back non-stop.
Where: Trek Bicycle Store Victoria, 338 Catherine St., Victoria
When: The nine cyclists will ride out shortly before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16
Why: To raise money for the Island Kids Cancer Association.
Families of cancer-stricken Island children benefit as cycling relay begins June 16
The End2End bike ride doesn’t start until June 16, but Susan Kerr can already see its impact: more money for the families of Vancouver Island children hit by cancer, more boxes of healthy food delivered to their doors, more mental health supports….
And then there’s the strength those families get from knowing they’re not alone, that people like those in End2End are along for the journey, too.
“I’ve never seen a group of people come together and ignite the community in the way they have,” said Kerr, who leads the Island Kids Cancer Association, the beneficiary of the 1,000-kilometre, round-the-clock End2End fundraising relay, in which nine cyclists will pedal from Victoria to Port Hardy and back.
IKCA is a small, frontline charity that works directly with Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands families hit by childhood cancer. Founded in 2017 by Kerr — who lost her own son, Jacob, to the disease — it is made up of people with an intimate knowledge of the struggles such families face.
The End2End effort will help IKCA provide support and connection through every phase of a family’s cancer journey, Kerr says. It will mean more access to the essentials – things like mental health care, gas cards for families driving to far-off hospitals for treatment, food in the fridge for people who often have to give up their jobs to care for their children. “Those three should never be out of reach for families supporting a child with cancer.”
And, vitally, End2End will broaden the community of people who see the gaps in the system and want to provide real help to real neighbours. “The group has taken on our mission as its own,” Kerr says.
This is the second edition of the relay. The first, held last June, raised more than $110,000. Since End2End is an all-volunteer effort – nobody gets paid – and virtually all the relay’s expenses were covered by local sponsors, almost all that money went straight to IKCA.
“One of the best things about End2End is the money stays on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, helping Island families,” says End2End chair Andy Dunstan.
The relay will see nine Island cyclists, riding in groups of two or three, take turns pedalling a succession of 50-kilometre segments. Each group will ride for roughly two hours, rest for six, then climb back in the saddle for another leg of the round-the-clock journey. Each rider will complete 250 kilometres by the time the trip is done.
The first leg of the ride will see longtime competitive cyclist Ryan Clarke and Jen Millar – a Saanich mother whose young son was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago — set out from the Trek Bicycle Store in Vic West at 6 p.m. on June 16. They’ll climb the Malahat to Cobble Hill before giving way to well-known broadcaster Ed Bain, his CHEK News The Upside partner Jeff King, and End2End volunteer Morgan Harker. Those three will be followed by fundraising dynamos Kevin Nunn of the Saanich Police and Sophia Pugh, Scotiabank’s Vancouver Island vice-president. They’ll hand off to Saskia Bjornson, a multi-sport athlete and coach, and Sara Park, who, remarkably, is tackling the relay less than a year after concluding her own cancer treatment.
The riders will continue the journey in that order until arriving back at the Trek store (End2End’s organizing sponsor) two days after they left. Their expected arrival is around suppertime on Thursday, June 18.
At the halfway point, the riders and other supporters will gather at Port Hardy Secondary School, where a turn-around celebration – complete with burgers by donation to the cause — will begin at 3 p.m. on June 17.
The Port Hardy stop is one of a string of events that have been going on up and down the Island –- burger-and-beer nights, spinathons, hockey games, concerts — as End2End chases its goal of passing last year’s fundraising totals.
People can learn more about – or donate to – the cause by going to End2Endcancer.com. They’ll also be able to track the riders’ progress via live updates to that website June 16-18.