Cycling

It's been a very busy week and especially busy weekend. This weekend Brian participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I am SO proud of him. Last fall, a coworker at Behr Energy Services was diagnosed with cancer. The company rallied behind her, doing various fund raising activities to raise money to pay for maid services while she underwent treatment. In the spring, company president Todd Wilson suggested creating a team to participate in this weekend's ride; Brian got things organized and four riders (in the picture, from left to right, Cristofor, Brian, Todd and Bruce) signed up and raised over $15,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. This is the second year for this fundraiser and it raised an amazing 7.3 million dollars.

Cancer sucks. The word itself is terrifying, and it seems to attack with feral intensity. I'm a scientist, so when I think of cancer I think of the biochemical process involved in cancer onset. I know that cancer is a failure of the cell's own self-destruction signals; a breakdown of the delicate pact between individual cells who may have an interest in rampant reproduction, and the body, who needs them to work together and agree to shut down when they're told.

But cancer has a personal impact on everyone. In 2005 my beloved dad, who got me interested in science in the first place, was diagnosed with throat cancer. At this point, the science of it meant nothing to me, I was just angry. My dad started treatment at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, and the treatment also sucked. Because tumors are collections of rampantly dividing cells, cancer treatments are targeted to interrupt the biochemistry involved in cell division. This means that the treatment has a high level of collateral damage on healthy cells that happen to be dividing. Cancer treatments are like playing whack-a-mole with a sledgehammer and hoping you don't wreck the machine.

My dad survived. His doctors and nurses were incredible, and I truly believe that he couldn't have gotten better treatment anywhere else.

Research drives advances in cancer survival. Cancer sums up a variety of disorders that result in the breakdown of the cell's self-destruction pathways, leading to rapid cell division. Because the breakdown of this cascade can happen for a myriad of reasons, cancer is complex and pernicious. The public is often frustrated by the lack of progress in cancer research, but that is a result of the truly mind boggling complexity of the disease. The high rates of cancer incidence fuels this frustration; according to the Canadian Cancer Society, 40% of women and 45% of men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes, and roughly 25% of Canadians will die of cancer. This is complex disease with alarming prevalence.

Clearly more research is needed, and this is one field that has a great deal of support. The $7.3 million raised by this weekend's ride is the most money raised in one event in the Alberta Cancer Society's history, and it will be well spent. The support and dedication of the organizers, volunteers, and riders means a great deal to all patients and survivors. And it means a great deal to me.

Link here to Brian's blog about his ride.