Seeing cancer and its effects up close has inspired a pair of Saanich police officers to hit the road this fall as part of one of Vancouver Island’s most high-profile cancer-fighting fundraisers.
Constables Shauna Bainbridge and Nadia Sandhu are joining a team of 19 riders in the annual Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock, where law enforcement and emergency services personnel cycle 1,2oo kilometres across Vancouver Island to help raise money for childhood cancer research and Camp Goodtimes.
READ MORE: Kids inspire Black Press Media rider to tackle Tour de Rock for third time
Each local rider grew up with connections to cancer. Seeing the effects that it has on children really connected them to the cause and drove them to want to participate.
Bainbridge grew up in Sooke and returned there to raise her family. She told a story about a young girl named Hannah who was sick with cancer. After seeing her family struggle to get her back and forth to Vancouver for treatments, a chance to help children like Hannah hit home. She also had a relative that passed away from cancer relatively young and this also made cause really important to her.
Sandhu, meanwhile, had a degree in radiation therapy before she became a police constable. Her experiences in her former career really drew her to want to be part of this event.
Both riders are looking forward to meeting families along the way and learning their stories.
“Everyone that has been a past rider has said it’s one of their top five best experiences of their life and you meet all these families of all walks. So it kind of makes you kind of think about your own life, and just being able to help these kids and just meet them,” Sandhu said.
A visit to Camp Goodtimes — a camp for sick kids in Maple Ridge in a medically-supervised environment — is also expected to be a highlight.
“Just the research side of it was super important to me to do anything I could to help. So, raising money for that and to send kids to Camp Goodtimes is kind of my goal throughout all this and just to help out the kids is why we do, what we do,” Bainbridge said.
Stories from children, including the honourary riders they were assigned, really help make the training that much easier.
“These kids, they never had a choice, and they’re so resilient and brave. And so anytime I’m having a hard time riding up the hill, like when you compare it to what these kids went through, it’s like just a bike. Pretty much just pedal. You can do it,” Sandhu said.
Each rider’s donation pages can be found on the Tour de Rock website.
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