#beyondkidscancer

Today's ride started with breakfast at Sears and then a dedication read by Mike Leiter about his son Micheal who passed away due to cancer.

He was in his senior year of high school, had just been accepted to College, an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He was told he would not live a long life since his form of cancer was so rare in teenagers and treatments are rare. He under went chemo and then tried to have the tumour removed.  Although this was not a cure, it gave Michael more time to live. He graduated high school, but just one week before he started college, he found out his cancer returned and he had even fewer options for treatment. He attended college and took part in clinical trials with very little success. During this time he never stopped living his life. He attended concerts, the beach, hunting and fishing and making the best of everyday. In September 2006 he started turning yellow due to his liver starting to fail, but this still did not stop him from living. He was told he had a month to a month and half to live. He lived every day the best he could with his parents and friends. On November 13, 2006 Michael passed away. Cancer never changed the way Michael lived life, just the time he had to do it in. Today we ride for Michael

We had good day today on the bikes with a nice tail wind we flew! Our average today was 34 km due to city lights and stop signs. Most of the time we were rolling at 40 plus km. Last year the roads were rough, but this time they weren't so bad. We were a hour early so we stopped for ice cream.

We ended at one of my favourite spots on the ride Auberge e la Pointe,  A luxurious hotel and a view of the St Laurence River to die for! This was our menu:

We have a 4 hour shuttle and we lose a hour with the time zone change. We are almost done this wonderful journey only a few days left. To think only 15 days ago I was in Vancouver.

Today started with a nice breakfast put on for us by Sears St Laurent. It was followed by a dedication for Tobin, who at the age of two in 2002 started becoming lethargic, had problems walking straight and was vomiting. A CT scan showed a mass on his brain and he was sent to Sick Kids for specialized care to treat a brain tumour. The next day he had an MRI followed by immediate surgery to remove the tumour that had grown to the size of a baseball on his brain. They successfully removed 80% of the tumour and followed with chemo and radiation. His treatment involved stereo-tactic Interstitial Irradiation, a new type of therapy available only at Sick Kids. Tobin was doing well after surgery, but in 2005 the tumour had grown again and surgery was scheduled to remove 98%. He had 18 cycles of chemo over the next year and a half. He resumed all his regular activities of school, baseball and even hockey. However, in June 2009 a routine MRI showed the tumour had grown again, and surgery was scheduled again to remove it completely. Unfortunately they learned it had spread down his spine as well and he would require radiation again. Tobin has had 20 cycles of chemo, 63 radiation treatments, 3 brain surgeries and he has tackled every thing with a positive attitude! In 2012 Tobin had surgery to replace an area of kissing skull. A custom implant was made that covers the full thickness defect resulting from removing his bone flap, which gives his parents more comfort as he enjoys many sports. 

I had a nice surprise today, my sister Tracy showed up to see me off as I continue on my journey. Thank you for taking the time out of your morning to come see me!

It was fun like always, oh the logistics of trying to get from one team to another! Last night at Sick Kids in Toronto we made the switch from Team 2 to Team 1. Thanks to my wife Lisa for driving Eric and myself to Pickering to join Team 1.

Today’s dedication for the ride for Team 1 was to Thomas Martin as we were riding into his hometown of Belleville.

We had to split Team 1 into two teams due to the size. With all the riders that have joined we now had a total of 20 National and rely riders. We split it down the middle 10 each. That ride is always beautiful I have done it many times. As we got closer to Belleville the pace kept getting faster, well as fast as they will let me push it!  We rode 163 km and had fun doing so.

Coming up College St it felt like I was going to work, but this time I was excited about it! Seeing the signs that my kids had made for the team and me along the road and also having them lead us into the parking lot was great! It was also nice see Ed Helmus a past National rider and cancer survivor there to high 5 us all as we rode in!. It was a great reception with lots of people and media coverage. It is always such a rush at the end! So much to do! Shower, eat, be an ambassador and talk to everyone you can. Not much time to spend with the family. We had a few speakers and a then the cheque presentation. I thought it was only going to be enough to push me to the $25000 mark, but to my surprise and thanks to Sears Belleville and the associates that work so hard at fundraising for this event and many others, Kristy presented a cheque for $20,649. !!!!!!!!!!!! Bring my fundraising total to $37907 (to date). Which is so surprising!!!!!!. We have a couple more events planned this year so $40,000 here we come!!!!!! Big thanks goes out to Sears Belleville and Vaughan and all my friends and family for all your donations and support! This event really needs people like you to make it all happen!

I can’t say enough about my co-workers in Sears Belleville, they have the biggest most generous hearts of anyone I know. They are always there to support me, challenge me, encourage me to keep up the fight against childhood cancer! They don’t stop there though! They are champions for any cause they see a need to support!!!! I truly work with the BEST Sears associates in the country!

After all that, it was time to go. The kids were so busy doing things and helping out with the event that it didn't really sink in I was leaving again to finish the ride. I gave them all hugs and kisses. NO tears this time!!! All my son Austin wanted to do was go for a bike ride with me! (Future national rider in training! Father & Son team coming in the future!) So we rode around the parking lot, to where  the vehicle was that we were using to get back to team 2 in Ottawa. We loaded up the truck with the bikes on the back and headed out. It didn't take too long but i was tired from the drive when we got there. We were greeted by the Team 2, had a few drinks and went to bed zzzzzzzzzzzz

Tomorrow we ride to Montreal

Today we ride for the many kids who have or have had cancer.

Today was one of the very special days on SNKCR where I got to ride with friends and family that have helped in the fight along the way! My wife Lisa drove 4 hours to ride her first 126 km at a 30 km speed. I was so proud of her because she was so stressed coming into this thinking that she would slow everyone down! 

This was supposed to be a relaxing ride but with so many stops in the slotted time frame we had to rush a little. This was the first time we have rode this route so again we were blazing new trails. 

The Sears store and the people there were the best on this route! It brought our spirits up and helped us ride hard. At each stop we picked up more riders, but the pace never went down too much.  We had a police escort to Square One which made us feel like heroes, which we are are not. It’s the kids that empower us to keep going, they are the real heroes! 

Riding into Sick Kids in Toronto was awesome too! We heard from a young boy who got hurt in a soccer game and was rushed to the hospital thinking it was just a broken leg only to find out he had cancer. He had his femur replaced with a steel rod. He was told he would never play soccer again but he has just made his school team and was feeling like a kid again!!!! Oh how I can relate to being told you will never be able to do something! 

We drove to Pickering and switched to Team 1 for day 13. We had showers at Good Life and ate supper at Jack Astors. 

Today started a little later at 6. Got to sleep in 30 minutes more; which you may think is not much more but it’s a lot on this trip! I woke up in the middle of the night and it was teaming out! I just hoped it wasn't when I had to get up and it wasn't. :) We stayed in a parking lot at the Nairn Community Centre, which is hard to find in the dark. Did the SNKCR circle when got there. LOL

Today's dedication was read by Eric about Thomas Martin, a Belleville boy and friend of the family. He was diagnosed with gliomatosis cerebri stage 3 at the age of 9.

It’s a very rare and inoperable brain tumor. Any parent’s worst nightmare. This tumor is in the shape of a spider web and is spread across the entire brain. There is no surgery that can remove it and no treatment that can cure it. With Gliomitosis Cerebri, due to it’s aggressive form usually by the time the patient is diagnosed, the patient has either already passed away or is just months away from doing so.

Up until his diagnosis, Thomas was very much an average boy. He liked music and computer games, ball hockey, and downhill skiing. Thomas loved Lamborghini, his favourite colour was blue, and he was a huge AC/DC fan. You know, a typical 9 year old boy. But Thomas was anything but typical. He seemed to care more for others than for himself. He was the kid who stood up to the bully on someone else's behalf. He was the one who really cared how your day was going, and like so many childhood cancer sufferers, he seemed to have a wisdom, an age beyond his years. Thomas loved school, and even when he was sick, he made it a point to go when ever he could.

Thomas was special, not just in the way that all children are special to their parents, but in a way that states the world needs more Thomas'. His was a voice we could not afford to lose.

On February 29 of this year, a leap day, Thomas earned his wings. A rare boy, with a rare disease, who chose the rarest day on our calendar to make his exit.

NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE!

Today's ride started with tears for me, warm, wet and real rough roads. Blazing new trails again and we only had 60 mins to get 60 km. That wasn't going to happen under those conditions, so we shuttled a little towards Sudbury. We stopped about 10 km from the store and rode into Sears. We were greeted by a few staff members, that gave us snacks and towels to dry off with. Not like in the past years when we were dry coming to their store. 

I think we were about 100 plus km into the ride when we stopped for lunch at The French River Trading Post. The they served us soup and sandwiches. It started to rain just before we got there so we were wet again but not as bad as last year. When we came out the rain had stopped and it was still warm out. We re-grouped, saw we had 66 kms to go and a 32 km shuttle. We talked about it and agreed to ride the rest of the way and not shuttle until we had to. We made it to the last stop at the Bobby Orr Community Centre in Parry Sound. It felt easier than the other days because there were less hills and we didn't really mind the rain until we were about 30 km out and the sky's opened up on us! It still didn't matter, we could see the end and we were wet already. We had a few flats today, two on the bike and one on the van! Which our mechanical Jim Forbes fixed. Man of all trades! Going to miss him as he gets off in Toronto tomorrow.

We are off to St Catharines tonight!

Today was a rough start with only 4 hours sleep due to the long shuttle last night. I find it hard to sleep in the moving RV. You feel every bump and turn in the road. Sometimes the rumble strips.

With all that said I struggled to stay awake on the first part of the ride. We rode to my favourite stop on the ride. The Terry Fox Memorial. The man I’ve looked up to from first the time I saw him on TV in 1980 running across Canada for a cause that I knew nothing about. Just to see the man running a marathon everyday after his coach told him it can not be done. Like me I would do it to prove him wrong like he did.

We got to the memorial as the sun was raising up over the sleeping giant in the lake. Graham read a dedication Natasha Gould. So today we rode for Natasha. Today was so heart wrenching because Trevor Crystals last day riding with us and Alexandra our RMT, left the team to go home. It didn't hit me so much about Trevor or anyone leaving until I got on the bike to ride. My eyes started to tear up thinking that our ride boss and fellow rider Trevor was not going to Halifax with me like he has the past 3 times! But he has to return to his real life and fight the fight from there.

We had a tough ride today with wind shifting from every where and the hills. The good old Ontario hills! We broke up the breaks into 76 km stretches to make sure we got the day in. A little harder, but it works.

We had some nice weather after the cold morning start. Also some awesome views. I rode 220 km climbed 2000 meters at 27.7 km and dropped my chain with a 1 km to go.

Another awesome day with a wonderful team!

We are off to Wawa to sleep in the cold like every year.