Hope on Wheels
SINCE 2008, THE RIDE HAS BEEN RAISING FUNDS FOR CANCER RESEARCH, PROVIDING HOPE AND MAKING PASSIONATE CYCLISTS
JUNE 2017 will see the running of the 10th edition of the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. Launched by the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto in 2008, the fundraising event and cycling weekend has grown at an impressive rate – in its second year, it expanded to include rides in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal – and raised an even more impressive amount of money. In the ride’s first nine years, a total of $155 million has been collected for cancer
research and support programs in Canada. Another benefit of the ride has been seen in the country’s cycling community. “I think we’ve made literally thousands of cycling enthusiasts out of people who haven’t ridden a bike for 15 or 20 years,” says Paul Alofs, president and ceo of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. “The unintended consequences in terms of cycling and the enjoyment of cycling were way beyond our anticipation when we got into this.” To commemorate the significance the Ride to Conquer Cancer has meant to cancer treatments and Canada’s cycling community, organizers and cyclists from across the country tell us why they ride, what the weekend is really like and what the experience means to them.