‘We smashed it’: CN Cycle for CHEO breaks record with over $2.1 million raised for childhood cancer research
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A bit of Sunday rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of thousands of walkers and bikers who turned out for the CN Cycle for CHEO, raising a record-breaking $2.175 million for childhood cancer research and care.
“We didn’t just break the record, we smashed it,” Steven Read, president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation, said in an interview.
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Now in its 17th year, the CN Cycle for CHEO features 15 km, 35 km or 70 km cycling routes, along with two km and five km walking routes for people of all ages.
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More than 7,000 people participated, the largest turnout in the event’s history.
Tamy Bell was the top individual fundraiser, raising more than $61,000. She’s the mother of Griffin Bell, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2018 at just 16 months old. He died in March, at the age of six, after a lengthy battle with the aggressive childhood cancer.
Bell was also part of Griff’s Gang, a 613-person team that raised a record-smashing $323,469.
“Last year, he was with us,” Bell said, her voice cracking with emotion as she addressed the large crowd, who stuck around for the speeches despite the rain that returned after a short pause during the event.
“He ran the whole five K.”
Griffin, who was known for being a spark plug and a little entertainer, underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy, which shrunk the tumour so it could be removed. He was declared cancer-free in March 2019, but sadly relapsed two years later when the tumour returned.
When Bell learned only four per cent of all money raised for cancer research goes to childhood cancers, she started Little Press Co., producing stylish T-shirts, sweaters and mugs, with a portion of her sales donated to CHEO to help families in the Ottawa region affected by childhood cancer.
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Bell previously told this newspaper there is no playbook for children with relapsed neuroblastoma. She called CN Cycle for CHEO the best day of the year.
“If we can play a small part in ensuring that no other family has to feel the way we are today, or go through what we did over these last six years, by raising money for more research and care, then that’s what we’re going to continue to do,” Bell said Sunday.
Read said this year’s fundraiser is the “most impactful” in the event’s history. On top of breaking fundraising records, this year’s event also broke turnout records.
“I’ve always observed that some of the families whose children have had the toughest time are the first to get in line to help us out,” Read said. “And it’s a reminder to us of how important this is to the work that we do at CHEO, and how important it is to keep working at research and finding new treatments, new cures, new diagnoses, new ways of treating kids that make the experience better for the next and the next and the next.”
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