11th
This is a great event. I am a Pediatric Oncologist at B.C. Children’s Hospital (I am a doctor who specializes in childhood cancer). There are about 130 children diagnosed with cancer in B.C. every year and approximately 1300 in Canada. Fortunately there has been a lot of progress in curing children and about 80% of children will be cured. Unfortunately that means that there are children who have cancers which still aren’t curable. In addition treatment, even successful treatment comes with a price. Treatments are often complex and require exceptional care in order for them to be delivered as safely as possible. Treatments are often associated with long term consequences such as risks of other cancers, risks to how well organs function, decrease in chance of having children in the future. Treatment also has immense impact on families who are often uprooted from their homes or jobs while supporting their child through treatment. It is our great hope that improvements in all these areas continue.
This is a really worthwhile cause. Children deserve special attention. It isn’t possible to rely on fund raising done for cancer in general because there are 100 times as many adults who get cancer every year and they need help as well. With that many adults needing help, childhood cancer can only be beaten if it has its own fund raising stream.
Progress has happened because centers specializing in childhood cancer have worked together although most of the funding for this has come in the past from the US. In recent years Canadian pediatric oncology centers have banded together in an effort to support research specific to pediatric cancer, support education for all the people involved in the treatment of children and their families, promote the development of standards, support clinical research aimed at improving quality of life and outcomes and advocate for resources needed in Canada for best treatment. This organization, C17, has been funded by donated money and the proceeds from this ride are one of the main reasons the organization exists.
I love bike riding and go out pretty much every week year round. We are really lucky in B.C. that that is usually possible as long as you don’t mind getting wet sometimes (OK fairly often in the winter months at least). I am riding as part of the C17 relay team this year. Other years I have done the local ride-along in B.C., first from B.C. Children’s Hospital to Stanley Park and then to Sears in Burnaby, the next year from Coquitlam to Abbotsford Sears and last year from Langley Sears to Abbotsford Sears. The atmosphere has always been terrific. The national riders commit so much time and energy to this it makes people want to participate and makes me wish I could find the time to do more.
I chose a challenging year for this. Unfortunately I got a lymphoblastic lymphoma myself and received chemotherapy and then a bone marrow transplant (using my own bone marrow cells). The bone marrow transplant was at the end of March 2011. It took quite a while for my hemoglobin to go up after transplant and I needed transfusions into June. Also I wasn’t allowed to ride until my platelets (particles which keep you from bleeding) were high enough for “safe” falls. Finally I got a chance to start recovery and training (you get very weak and out of shape when you can’t do anything for 6 months or so) and was doing pretty well although not up to last years level. Then on July 22 while on a bike ride I got hit by a car and got a cracked radial head (broken elbow). No cast or surgery was needed but it was another 2 weeks before I could put enough weight on it to ride (and brake) properly.
So with only a few weeks to go I am back on my bike and hopefully will be fit enough for the relay legs of the ride.
