Hundreds of people will be cycling 250 kilometres from Surrey to Seattle over the weekend as part of the annual B.C. Ride to Conquer Cancer and this year, one team has broken the record for the most money ever raised for the event.
Team "Daryl's Heidelberg Hope" has raised more than $630,000 so far and the donations keep rolling in.
The team is named in honour of the late Daryl Clark, who died of prostate cancer in June this year.
Alex Blodgett, who became friends with Clark through a shared journey with stage four cancer, is one of the team's leaders.
Fundraising is key to combating cancer, he told CBC's On The Coast guest host Tanya Fletcher.
"That's ultimately how we solve cancer," Blodgett said. "Research and the B.C. Cancer Foundation save lives."
Money for Heidelberg Hope trials
The money the team raises will be used to fund two clinical trials of Heidelberg Hope, an emerging compassionate care treatment in Germany that Clark had began with success.
Blodgett said the team's goal is to make the treatment available in North America and help others in Clark's situation.
"If you are going to go through the evolution of finding a treatment that works, you need to go through this clinical trial process," he said.
"The B.C. Cancer Research will be driving these clinical trials and we are hoping to start at the end of this year or early next year."
Only the beginning
The total cost of running the two trials will about $4.5 million. Blodgett said this weekend's ride is just the first step.
"It doesn't stop at the finish line, it only starts," he said. "It doesn't end on Sunday afternoon."
This will be the fifth year Blodgett participates in the Ride to Conquer Cancer.
"This isn't a race, this is an opportunity to really bond with a lot of people," he said.
"Everyone out there have two things in common—we are out there to support people that we love and respect and we are out there to do raise money to do something really positive. There are two thousand riders and that pulls all of us together."