As the Tour de Rock team rolled into Centennial Square on Friday, rider Mena Westhaver looked at the parents holding children who have battled cancer. She knew exactly how they felt.
Her son, Jack, now 13, had his leukemia diagnosed in March 2009.
She knows the simultaneous hope and fear that dominates a family’s life after a diagnosis.
“Cancer has taught me that you can’t get through life’s struggles alone,” she told the crowd.
“Cancer has taught me that you have to ask for help.”
Westhaver made a confession that her 16 teammates, who spent two weeks riding 1,100 kilometres on Vancouver Island roads, might have already guessed: She’s terrified to ride a bike, especially downhill.
“My goal on the tour this year was to be half as brave as Jack was,” she said, thinking back to the long and painful chemotherapy he endured.
“When I was scared going down those hills, I visualized how strong that boy was.”
Jack has spent the past five years as a junior rider, a role that gives cancer survivors and their siblings a chance to be paired with a Tour de Rock rider.
Westhaver said her personal experience gave her an instant connection to parents she met across 27 communities visited by the Tour de Rock riders.
“Our family was hit with cancer, and we were fortunate enough to have our community rally around us,” she said.
“Some days were dark and dismal, but [through the Tour de Rock], we’re turning an awful disease into something positive.”
It was just over a month ago that the family of four-year-old Roane Abbott-Haines was blindsided by his diagnosis: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the same type of cancer his mom, Erin Abbott-Haines, had two decades ago when she was 13.
The Esquimalt preschooler was treated to a ride in the lead police car as the team made its way from Coast Capital Savings in Vic West to Trek Pro City Cycle.
It was an experience Roane almost missed, as he was taken to hospital because of a fever on Thursday.
His father, Andrew Esser-Haines, said meeting the riders made Roane excited for Camp Goodtimes next year, a camp for children with cancer that is supported by Tour de Rock fundraising.
Roane’s cancer is in remission after his first 30 days of treatment, but he still faces another three years of treatment to make sure it doesn’t come back.
“He was thrilled when we told him the medicine was working and the cancer is almost gone,” Esser-Haines said.
“We’re happy to see we’re on the right track, but it’s a long road.”
On Thursday, Roane’s mother shaved her head so her son could take his strength from her Hulk tattoo, which she got last fall as part of her own fundraiser for childhood cancer.
This year’s tour raised $1,278,065, bringing the total raised since 1998 to more than $22 million.
The funds support pediatric cancer research.
In B.C. and Yukon, about 130 children each year have cancer diagnosed and about 24 die.
Anne Carelli, a special guest on this year’s team and a pediatric oncology nurse at Victoria General Hospital, has had the difficult job of treating, and sometimes losing, kids with cancer.
She also lost her junior rider, Emma Smith, who died on June 21, just shy of her 13th birthday.
“She is gone but not forgotten,” an emotional Carelli said.
“These children we have ridden for, they need your help.
“They need to know they’re not alone.”
kderosa@timescolonist.com
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Donations are being accepted at this Canadian Cancer Society site.
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Earlier story:
The annual Cops for Cancer fundraising bicycle ride, a two-week 1,100-kilometre journey from Port Alice to Tofino to Victoria, ends today with a celebration at Centennial Square beginning at 5 p.m.
Money raised during the ride goes to the Canadian Cancer Society and pediatric cancer research.
This year’s team has 17 members, made up of Island police officers and their guests.
The team is scheduled for a 40-kilometre ride today through Esquimalt, Saanich and Victoria.
Their busy Thursday schedule included a stop at Oak Bay High School for a rally, which featured a fundraising head shave for principal Dave Thomson. The school raised $63,754, topping a goal of $50,000.
Here’s a detailed list of their stops today. They include Esquimalt Plaza at 9:47 a.m., Esquimalt High at 10:47 a.m., Broadmead Centre at 11:54 a.m., Reynolds Secondary at 12:40 p.m., Lansdowne Middle School at 2 p.m., University of Victoria at 2:27 p.m., and Centennial Square at 5 p.m.
