Houston RCMP officer, Constable Ryan Hobbs, participated in this year’s Cops for Cancer Tour de North from Williams Lake to Dawson Creek, stopping in McKenzie and Fort St. John, raising $220,000 to date.
A total of seven days and 870 kilometers of biking, cops from all over B.C. came together to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Houston raised almost $10,000 alone.
“As a part of the Tour de North we would visit schools and talk to kids in the communities we biked through,” said Cst. Hobbs. “At every school assembly we attended, one of the riders would do this demonstration that I felt really drove the message home.”
Constable Hobbs explained that an officer would pick 10 kids from the crowd and ask them to come up front with him. Next he would tell them all to sit on the ground and explain that in the past if 10 of these kids got cancer, none of them would have survived.
He then would ask eight of the kids to stand up and leave the two sitting down and explained that now, with advancements in cancer research, eight of these 10 kids would survive.
Constable Hobbs added, “We bike for the other two kids still sitting, for the 100,000 kids that still die from cancer annually worldwide.”
Constable Hobbs said that through the generous donations from communities like Houston, Cops for Cancer hopes that they can continue to fund pediatric cancer research that will lead to advancements that minimize the impact of cancer and cancer related treatment for the lives of all those affected.
Constable Hobbs said he would love to do the Cops for Cancer Tour de North bike tour again next year.