Larry Hooge keeps the memory of friends and family he’s lost to cancer close to him.
The four-time Ride 2 Survive participant has photographs of people who’ve had the disease attached to his bike to give him strength on the 388 kilometre ride when the going gets tough.
“This is who I’m doing the ride for. These are the friends and family of my sponsors, my friends and family who have suffered from cancer,” he told the Herald. “Several of them have passed away.”
Riders descend down the highway into town on June 18, part of a 388 kilometre ride to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. (Michael Potestio/Herald).
Hooge, 56, from Abbotsford has had many close friends die from cancer recently, and said it’s important to him to find a way to fight back.
Ride 2 Survive is the Canadian Cancer Society’s largest independent fundraising event. Every year the caravan of cyclists make their way from Kelowna to Delta with a pit stop in Merritt. Cyclists gathered at the visitor centre at the intersection of Highway 97C and Highway 5 where they were met by many cheering them on.
Like Hooge, many of the participants carry symbols of their loved ones who have been afflicted by cancer.
“If you look around you’ll notice a lot of the others have got names written on their legs,” Hooge said. “Everybody here’s riding for somebody.”
Shannon Hooper from Squamish is one of those riders.
Shannon Hooper tackled the ride on Saturday, with the names of the people she’s riding for written on her legs. (Michael Potestio/Herald).
Written on her legs in purple and green are the names of those she’s lost to cancer, and some words of encouragement.
Matthew Acheson from Port Coquitlam is one of Saturday’s participants who know first hand what it’s like to battle cancer.
The 49-year-old had testicular cancer when he was in his 20s, which he said was at a time when a cancer diagnosis didn’t seem to come with much hope of survival.
“The people that I knew that had cancer, it looked like they got cancer, they got treatment, and a few years later they died a horrible death,” Acheson said.
He said even after his cancer treatment, he was convinced that this would be his fate too.
“In my 30s I was a mess,” he said adding that some of his friends helped him get back on his feet.
“[They] told me to pay back the world for saving my miserable hide,” he said with a laugh.
Jenny Amstutz and her daughter Aurora were in the Merritt area camping for Father’s Day this weekend when they decided to cheer on their friend and cancer survivor Matthew Acheson who rode in the Ride 2 Survive cycling fundraiser that stopped in Merritt. (Michael Potestio/Herald).
This led to Acheson participating in The Ride to Conquer Cancer and then Ride 2 Survive.
He said this year was his second year taking partin Ride 2 Survive as a cyclist.
“It took me a long time to concede that I wasn’t one of the ones who was going to die,” he said. “Not many people get to survive, especially 22 years ago hardly anybody got to survive,” Acheson said adding that survival rates have gone up dramatically since then.
“I got to be alive, I got to have a wife, I got to have three children because people believed cancer research was real and that [cancer] could be beaten,” he said.
Hooper described the ride as phenomenal.
“It’s exhausting, it’s intense, there’s a lot of doubt, but when you’re on it, when you’re doing it there’s so many moments that are just like this is living and I can do it,” she said.
Ride 2 Survive is intended to give people a snapshot of the struggle someone with cancer goes through, Hooge said.
“It’s not meant to be easy,” he said.
Sunday’s trip began at about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday and took about 12 hours to reach the Lower Mainland.
As of Saturday, she said the ride has raised more than $500,000 this year, said ride organizer Carly Towne.
All proceeds from the fundraiser goes towards cancer research, she said.
