Sgt. Kris Wood, from the North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP detachment, will represent the Cowichan Valley on this year’s Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock team.
The 24-member team was announced on May 6 in Sooke in front of a cheering, jam-packed crowd.
Since its inception in 1998, the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock has become Vancouver Island’s number one fundraiser and has raised more than $22 million to help kids with cancer.
The Tour de Rock raises money for pediatric cancer research and support programs, including sending children facing cancer and their families to the CCS’s acclaimed Camp Goodtimes each summer.
The team of police officers and special guests riders from all over Vancouver Island cycle from the northern end of the Island to the southern end each fall; bicycling more than 1,100 kilometres every year.
This 20th year of the fundraiser will mean that, collectively, the riders have travelled more than halfway around the world to help children in their battle against cancer.
Wood, who is originally from Toronto, has served with the RCMP in the Valley for the last year and a half.
She said training for the tour began in March and she plans to be up to the challenge by the time the Tour de Rock finally begins in September.
“Our trainers are excellent and have a lot of experience training riders for the tour,” she said.
“I’m prepared to do what I can to help kids with cancer, and if I have to experience some soreness to accomplish that, then that’s what I’m prepared to do.
Wood said she’s no stranger to cancer and has lost her best friend and her father-in-law to the disease.
“We all have ties to this awful disease. It takes about $1,500 to send one kid to Camp Goodtimes each summer, and my goal is send as many as I can to camp with the money I manage to fundraise during this tour.”
Over the past 20 years, funding from the Tour de Rock has sent more than 8,450 kids to Camp Goodtimes.
The Tour de Rock team will spend the next five months training on the bike and fundraising, before setting out in Port Alice on Sept. 23 and ending in Victoria on Oct. 6.
