Mike Kelly participates in the 2013 National Kids Cancer Ride. (Photo courtesy: Mike Kelly. Photo credit: Geoff Gabriel)
The endeavour is ambitious and onerous but nothing compared to the struggles children battling cancer go through everyday, explained Mike Kelly as he prepares for his third National Kids Cancer Ride.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness and cyclists, including two local riders, are gearing up to take the fight coast to coast to raise funds to improve cancer treatments for children and bring the issue to the forefront. The Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation donates all of the funds raised through the national ride to children’s cancer treatments.
On Wednesday, Kelly, Lisa Allen and fellow participants will wheel out of Vancouver, BC on an 18-day trek to Halifax, NS.
Kelly said he has been training for a year for this ride adding there are a lot of unknowns out there on the road but it’s the kids that keep him going to the finish line.
Kelly said he first got involved with the initiative in 2009.
“I listened to a young mom talk about her experience raising a kid with a deadly disease and that was really my first awakening that kids get cancer,” Kelly said. “It’s something you should know but it’s never really at the top of your mind. In 2010 a very good friend of mine invited me on a ride along and I rode in from Woodstock and at that point I met a young man named Adam from Barrie. He was just a great kid. It was one of those things where you go ‘wow this is one of the kids you want leading the world.'”
This year Kelly is riding for Chloe, who was four and undergoing treatment for Leukemia when he met her during a ride through Moncton, New Brunswick in 2013.
“I have never seen anything stronger than these kids that are going through this,” said Kelly. “Chloe is the reason I am riding this year. I see so many kids and it’s so hard to make that high level connection with all of them. They’re certainly all in my heart. But every once in awhile one of them strikes you and you go ‘yeah I just gotta do this.'”
The riders are scheduled to stop at the Sears Warehouse in Belleville on September 18.
To find out more or to donate visit http://nationalkidscancerride.com/ride/2013-national-riders/mike-kelly/
