Sarah had a good question, as nine-year-olds often do.
She had watched her Dad ride in The Healing Cycle event last year, which raises money for the palliative care program at Credit Valley Hospital.
After it was over, she sent an email to one of the chief organizers, Heather Campbell, and asked why all of the money was going to adults in palliative care, and none going to children who are in the hospital to spend their final days.
“I had the idea that kids need the same amount of attention that adults do,” Sarah explained this week.
Heather listened, as adults sometimes do. Now guess who is the captain of a new section of the ride next Sunday, Sept. 9 called Kids 4 Kids that will raise money for youngsters too?
Captain Sarah handed out letters to her classmates on the last day of school telling them about the event and has solicited contributions from family and neighbours amounting to more than $500 already. She will be leading the Kids 4 Kids team around the 10 km. race course that starts from the Meadowvale Delta next week.
Asked about her motivation, Sarah says, “I’m doing this for a good cause because if I ever get sick, I would want to know there is stuff out there for me.”
She pauses thoughtfully when asked to imagine what it must be like for children suffering from leukemia and other fatal diseases who are confined to hospital because of their medical requirements. “It would be upsetting. I would be scared... and sad.”
Sarah’s father Tony, who doesn’t want the family’s surname published, heard about the ride when he overheard a conversation about it in the Re-My Sport bike store a few years ago.
The new wing to be built at Credit Valley includes a proposal for a 10-bed palliative care unit and the money raised by the Healing Cycle will go towards that construction, says Tony.
“Palliative care is the forgotten child when it comes to fundraising,” says Tony. “No one wants to think about end-of-life care.”
When his own mother was dying at CVH, “we said goodbye to her in the basement, with all kinds of construction material around us. She was oblivious to it and, honestly, so were we.”
But it would be a lot better to say goodbyes in a more appropriate place.
A survivor of prostate cancer himself, the 71-year-old says the funds raised will go towards a number of projects, including a cart to provide a number of special supplies for kids, including red towels that do not show blood stains, and a room decorated like a child’s bedroom where kids and their parents can really feel at home while they visit.
“When I heard about The Healing Cycle, I had just been diagnosed, so I was well-motivated to get involved and so was Sarah,” says Tony.
After a slow start, The Healing Cycle is slowing getting into gear and clearly has the people and the passion to be Mississauga’s late-summer equivalent to the highly successful Gears 24-Hour Spin for cancer.
For more information or to donate, visit www.www.thehealingcycle.ca