Martin Wilkins, who is participating in the Great Cycle Challenge this summer for the third time, in Calgary on May 8.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
The organizer: Martin Wilkins
The pitch: Raising $6,800 and climbing
The cause: Cancer treatment for children
Martin Wilkins will never forget David Reich, a young boy his family befriended 30 years ago.
Mr. Wilkins’s wife used to babysit David and they all kept in touch as he grew into adolescence. At 16, doctors removed a cancerous tumor from David’s chest and after several rounds of chemotherapy, they said he was cancer-free. A year later, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite the possibility of a bone marrow transplant, David was too weak from the first round of chemotherapy. He died on Aug. 21, 1994, at the age of 18.
Mr. Wilkins still recalls visiting David in the hospital and being amazed by his stoicism. He joked with Mr. Wilkins about driving around town in his new truck, saying he wasn’t worried about getting speeding tickets “because I’m not going to be here anyways.”
“To see a young man, 17-years-old, accept the fact that he’s going to die was heart wrenching,” Mr. Wilkins, 73, said from his home in Calgary where he works as a consultant.
Over the years, Mr. Wilkins has donated money to various causes including the Alberta Children’s Hospital. But three years ago, he came across an event that resonated with him and made him think about David.
He signed up for the Great Cycle Challenge, an annual event that takes place in August and raises money for cancer treatment and research funded by SickKids Foundation, the charitable arm of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Riders commit to cycling a certain distance during the month and log their kilometres, and donations, on a website.
Mr. Wilkins, who is an avid cyclist, has participated in two challenges and he’ll be back on his bike in August for another 250 kilometres. He’s raised $6,800 so far and plans to keep riding. “You get committed to a purpose, and I’m just committed to this thing,” he said.
Every time he sets out, he thinks about David and other children he has known who have battled cancer. “Everybody has been affected by cancer, but when it’s a child, it really is a heartbreaker,” he said.