Kelowna

Just days after graduating from university, a Kelowna woman will be undertaking another long journey.

Siobhan McManus will be joining more than 40 other participants for this years Sear's National Kids Cancer Ride from September 9 to September 23.

The ride will take them across Canada as they raise money to fund research to fight children's cancer.

“The overall goal of this year's ride is $1.5 million, I believe they have raised about 85% of that so far. My personal goal is to raise $25,000 and I am about 50% of the way there,” says McManus.

She says the group of riders will be split into three teams which will all take different routes across the country, stopping at various oncology centres along the way.

“We will be riding between 150 and 210 kilometres per day, about six to eight hours a day of pure riding. I've been training for more than a year for this. I'm as ready as I'm going to get.”

McManus says any physical discomfort she may go through is nothing compared to what children with cancer go through every day.

“I got involved in this after the five-year-old son of a woman I worked with was diagnosed with leukemia. In the space of three hours, the lives of everyone in that family were changed forever. He was diagnosed and then transferred from the Okanagan to Vancouver and undergoing his first surgery in the space of three hours. It was heartbreaking.”

She says another motivator was hearing the first hand story of another young boy at an event during last year's ride where she was a volunteer.

“This seven-year-old boy told his story to this huge crowd. He was wearing a long, very long string of beads. He told us each bead represented some step in his fight with cancer, a surgery, a needle poke. I don't know how anyone can hear something like that and not be compelled to help.”

Anyone wishing to donate to McManus via the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride can do so online.

Link: Donate online