Mackenzie Read hasn’t ridden a bike since she was a youngster. A fact that felt rather terrifying, when she was chosen to ride in the annual Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock. Yet, it also felt quite powerful and gratifying to realize that she will be one of 18 riders who will be spending two weeks to help children suffering from cancer.
She also has another, very personal reason for her ride: her mother.
Read, who was born, raised and graduated in the Ladysmith community, is a familiar face for locals.
“I’m a multi-media journalist at CHEK-TV and have been for the past three years,” Read said. “And have done numerous appearances in the news broadcasts and have also anchored the TV news often,” she said.
Read has found Tour de Rock inspiring for years.
"I know it sounds crazy but growing up here in Ladysmith, we always had Tour come through, and I always thought that it was a really interesting way to raise money for such an important cause," she said. "I remember a couple of school stops, and things like that, and just the excitement around it. It was always just kind of inspiring to see these people do this.”
Read left Ladysmith to further her education and get a degree in journalism and the thoughts of Tour were put one the back burner.
But the idea of being a Tour rider never really left Read, though she found the prospect more daunting as she got older.
"I was like, oh, the physical aspect of that is a lot. Maybe it's not quite for me, but over the years, I've had a number of family members and friends diagnosed and doing their own battles with cancer. I just thought this was a really good way to raise awareness, raise money for some of that cancer research, to hopefully find some sort of a cure in the future. It’s an important cause that touches so many people. Everybody is affected by cancer nowadays,” she said.
Read submitted her application to the Tour committee and found out, on May 9 when the eighteen riders were announced, that she had been selected.
"Two weeks after training began my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma, which really made it real for me," she said. "Almost like a sign of you're meant to do this. I was meant to do this ride to raise money and spread awareness.”
Training was the first time she'd gotten on a bike since she was a child.
"It's a fun learning experience, that's for sure. And great but tough fitness, I’m not going to lie.”
The team trains two to three nights per week with about 20 to 30 km rides, with riders encouraged to do more on their own. They also train longer distances on the weekends.
"I'm hitting some hills and I'll want to give up, but then you go no, you're doing this for your mom. You're doing this for the kids. You're doing this so that people have a chance to get treatment and that's the important thing. Like, this hill may suck, but it's nowhere close to going through cancer time. So it's it's keeping that in mind,” Read said.
Fundraising is one of the biggest focuses behind the Cops for Cancer ride.
“Luckily, Ladysmith has a great fundraising committee, which is very helpful. I'm really pushing some stuff on social media right now. There's a restaurant in Victoria that has told me that they want to help out, so probably going to do some stuff with them as well. I would love to do some beer and burgers besides the local committee is doing a beer and burger at the Eagles on July the 5.”
The Ladysmith rider also mentioned she would like to do a meet and greet in front of a local store and maybe sell hot dogs.
“Every dollar counts, to help these kids and to help them go to camp, and just forget about their cancer diagnosis for a moment and enjoy camp and be a kid because that's really what it's about,” Read said.
