“Ideation without execution is simply delusion” – Robin Sharma
By Christine Adela White
The Ride to Conquer Cancer is a 240 KM charity bike ride from Vancouver to Seattle, benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation.
Many of us have seen the televised ads and know somewhat of what the journey consists of (cyclists fundraising for cancer research), but the actual experience of being in The Ride and crossing the finish line is like no other feeling, no other experience that an ad can convey.
You hear your fellow cyclists beside you – the swishing of wheels spinning in unison, creating a polyphonic song of determination and perseverance, almost meditative. You remember why you are cycling, and in memory of whom. Your fellow cyclists are also grieving; they have lost a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a child. Your fellow cyclists are also cancer survivors, marked by yellow flags on their bike, and you cannot help but feel humbled and proud to be in their presence.
Just when you feel another 25KM to the next pit-stop is unbearable, you see that yellow flag and you trek on knowing their struggle and their triumph of beating the disease. All these cyclists have been touched by cancer in some form or another, and here they are, with you, fighting alongside for the sake of others in hopes of seeing a cancer-free world.
Christine Adela White.
This is a silent camaraderie. This is a crusade to end cancer: The Ride to Conquer Cancer.
The loss of a loved one is always difficult: you question ‘why’ and wonder ‘if.’ Time prepares us for chronological events: with the loss of a spouse, you become a widow; with the loss of parents at young age, you are an orphan.
But what do you call a mother or father who loses a child? There is no word in our vocabulary. The death of a child is out of chronological order, so you could imagine how confusing and how difficult it was for my mother and father when my little sister died. I had to be strong for them, being the eldest daughter. There was no choice.
August 29th-30th will mark my fifth year cycling down to Seattle.
I cycle in memory of my sister Laura who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at age 15 in 2002 and passed three weeks shortly after diagnosis.
I cycle for innovative treatment and research. Laura was in remission and had beat the disease, but the toxicity of the treatment was too much for her to bear. Her heart failed.
Today, cancer researchers are exploring lower dose toxicity in child-cancer treatment. Despite Laura beating the odds at a 11 percent “cure rate,” she died from side effects. Today, the survival rate is between 60 and 80 percent and these results are what fuel me to cycle and help our scientists make groundbreaking research.
Every year the students at the studio I teach and direct (CW Music) fundraise to benefit the BC Cancer Foundation. I am required to raise a minimum of $2,500 annually for The Ride. I am so proud and grateful to have such kind-hearted and talented students and their supportive families to help raise awareness for a cause close to my heart.
These students embody such an inspiration and love for others. On a volunteer trip to El Salvador with the 100 Smiles Project in April, some of our studio students wrote letters of encouragement and hope for the children in Remar Orphanage.
100 Smiles Project is a wonderful, new charity to support orphans with love and care. It is remarkable to witness kids helping kids. But the altruism doesn’t stop there! These musicians/students in the studio have also helped fundraise for other initiatives: StopaBully.ca, SOS Children’s Villages and most recently for the Bikes for the Philippines charity.
To me, instilling this sense of “giving back” with your talent at early age is so important. Music, to me, is a sacred art and discipline to be shared in the most loving and holistic ways.
Bikes for the Philippines is a charity that has recently tugged on my heart strings. I am both an educator and cyclist. Children in the Philippines sometimes have to walk 3-5KM every day to get to school, no matter the weather conditions. My mother attests to this.
I attended a graduation ceremony recently in March when I was in the Philippines, and as the grades ascended (from grades 8 to 10), the graduation class became increasingly smaller. The reason for this is because as children age, they become breadwinners of their families and cannot balance school work, household chores and a job.
Bikes for the Philippines provide these high-risk drop out students with a bicycle. It is amazing what difference a bike makes in their lives: travel time is cut in half and therefore there is time to attend class. I could also sense that the children are motivated to go to school because the bike is symbolic of the feelings of others wanting to support them, and therefore the children feel loved knowing they are thought of.
I certainly felt this when I visited Quinaoayanan High School in my mother’s home in Bani, Pangasinan and in Angono Rizal High School.
CW Music students’ next big initiative is to collaborate with The Bikes for the Philippines in a joint concert with talented musicians in the school. We are still brainstorming, but essentially we want to fundraise for CW Music musicians to go to the Philippines and spend some time with the children there, living in their shoes, and eventually performing in a joint concert.
There is no better day than today to make a difference in someone’s life. In turn, you have changed your own for the better.
www.conquercancer.ca/goto/ChristineAdela2015
www.BikesforthePhilippines.org
www.100smilesproject.org
www.stopabully.ca
www.sosbc.org
