Only one year after participating on the Tour de Rock Cops for Cancer ride in 2019, Oak Bay Police Sgt. Sandrine Perry was back on the bike this week.
On Sept. 29, Perry and fellow Oak Bay officer, Const. Emma Rutledge, rode a leg of the tour in the Cowichan Valley. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Tour de Rock organizers to cancel the spring and summer training program. Instead, alumni from 20 years of the Tour de Rock are stepping up from across the Island to each tackle a one-day section of the annual tour.
READ ALSO: Tour de Rock: Meet the 2019 team to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society
“I am riding this year as childhood cancer and its effect on the children and their families has not stopped and the support for this cause needs to continue despite the Tour being different this year,” Perry said. “I can’t even imagine how hard it is for these families during the unprecedented times of COVID. The families are dealing with so much more than any of us can imagine.”
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| Const. Derek Brand in 2015 with his junior rider Daisy Irwin. The two will reconnect when Brand, as an alumni rider, rides a partial leg of the 2020 Tour de Rock from Mill Bay to Sooke and Langford.
(Derek Brand Photo) |
For Rutledge, it’s been 11 years since she rode the Tour de Rock in 2009 while with Nanaimo’s RCMP detachment.
“I wanted to help raise awareness for Cops for Cancer and am very excited to be riding the Cowichan Valley route,” she said.
Oak Bay Police Const. Derek Brand is also partaking in this year’s alumni rides. Brand rode the 2015 Tour de Rock as a West Shore RCMP Auxiliary Constable. His junior rider was Daisy Irwin, whose family has been a huge supporter of the Tour de Rock for years, and the two will once again reconnect.
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“I am super excited to be able to ride again as it has been five years since I donned the Tour de Rock jersey,” Brand said. “It is even more special for me as I am riding the Mill Bay-Langford-Sooke leg and will be able to see my former junior rider Daisy Irwin.”
Tour de Rock riders are accepting donations at https://support.cancer.ca/site/TR/CopsforCancer/COPS_BC_odd_?fr_id=27169&pg=entry.
