Indomitable spirit honoured by family
In the days leading up to last year’s 200-kilometre ride, Sheryl Cheshire endured a bout of chemotherapy and then spiked a fever of 101. “There’s no way you could keep her away from the ride,” says Steve Cheshire, her husband. So she rode. In the midst of the taxing bike trip — from Toronto to Hamilton and then on to Niagara Falls — Sheryl crashed, bloodying her knee and spraining her ankle.
“I said, ‘Sheryl, let’s call it a day,’ ” recalls Steve. But, “you couldn’t stop her.” On she rode, not only for herself but for everyone ever touched by cancer, he says. The anecdotes perfectly sum up the woman. To hear her husband of 22 years tell it, Sheryl loved a good challenge. Throughout her 21⁄ 2- year battle with duodenal cancer, a rare form of intestinal cancer, the mother of two ran marathons, completed triathlons and earned her black belt in karate. “If it wins, it wins, but I won’t be beaten,” Sheryl, who also blogged during her treatment, would say. She died May 7 at her home in Bradford, surrounded by family, a few weeks shy of her 42nd birthday. “She was the epitome of the glasshalf-full kind of attitude,” says Steve, 43, of the woman he’s adored since she was a senior in high school. “She was very unassuming. I can’t say enough positive things. She was that good.” Sheryl had signed up to ride again this weekend in The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, benefitting Princess Margaret Hospital. Her 17year-old son Dylan will ride with Steve, daughter Stevie, 19, and six others from their team, “Sheryl’s Hope.” In the past two years, they’ve raised close to $70,000.
Earlier this year, when it looked as if Sheryl would be too sick to ride, the family searched for a buggy so Steve could tow her along. On Saturday, the corporate pilot says, his wife will be there, right alongside him. “She’ll be cheering us all on.”
Every minute, someone in Ontario is diagnosed with cancer, says Paul Alofs, president and CEO of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. But progress is being made. In North America during the 1960s, one out of three people survived a cancer diagnosis. Today, it’s two out of three.
All the money raised from this weekend’s ride will go toward cancer research. Princess Margaret wants to offer every patient personalized cancer care, profiled at the level of their DNA, within five years.
The ride, now in its fifth year, has raised $62 million to date.
Steve Cheshire was never much of a biker. But his wife will bring him back year after year. “As long as there’s a ride and as long as I’m able, you’re going to see me there.”