Ride for Cancer hits record stride for third year

Third Ride for Cancer A record breaking number of participants biked from Mahone Bay to Halifax raising money for cancer research and treatment.

Nearly 600 riders made the journey from Mahone Bay to Halifax, with the goal of raising money for diagnostic and treatment technology, Saturday.

Only in its third year, the Ride for Cancer has raised at least $1 million for the QE11 Foundation.

Graeme Benjamin was the first rider from the Bell Media team to make it to the Hubbards Rest Centre, more than half way through the ride.

"The fact that our team came together to raise all that money – Bell Media raised $20,000 in such a short amount of time –  you think about that the whole ride and it's a great experience,” Benjamin said.

"The weather's been cooperating, a lot of people on the track for a good cause,” said Ian MacArthur from the team.

The Ride for Cancer has grown every year, and this year the number of participants was almost double last year.

"We're in our third year, and we've raised over $1 million this year, at the beginning of the year, we had brought in over $570,000 net, and that's after expenses,” said Ride for Cancer chair, Scott McIntrye.

Bike riders had two choices for the ride: they could either take the highway, or use a trail alongside it. The road track was 130 kilometres in total and the trail was 100.

The biggest fundraiser for the year, Blair Cabot from Team Clearwater, says he’s motivated by personal experience, but wasn’t able to do the full ride this year.

“I had to drop back to the 25 at last minute because I was actually getting chemo for Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he said.

Jessica Dempsey says she also rode for personal reasons.

"I lost an uncle, he was a smoker, and my folks called me one day and he was gone,” she says.

Olivia Fraser from the Team Bell Media says she rides to give hope to others that cancer can be beaten.

“I have been in remission for 20 years, 20 years post-chemo,” she says.

The money raised by the ride will now allow the purchase of vital diagnostic and treatment equipment for the QE11 Foundation.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ron Shaw.