A finance manager with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary will be swapping her calculator for a bicycle when she takes on the Tour de Cure 100 km fundraising bike ride in Chilliwack later this month.
Anouschka Riverin’s team, Just Beat it, hopes to complete the challenge in under five hours and has so far raised over $2,000 to help the BC Cancer Foundation break down the disease through lifesaving research and enhancements to care.
Two of the Rosslander’s closest outdoor adventure buddies will join her on BC’s biggest cycling fundraiser when she saddles up on Aug. 27. Together they will be fuelled and motivated by the generosity of colleagues at the RDKB who have been donating to it throughout her event training.
“Helping to change the stigma around cancer has been a learning experience filled with constant personal growth,” says Riverin, who is a cancer survivor.
Diagnosed with advanced Stage 4 colon cancer metastasized to her liver in November 2020, the BC Cancer Foundation played a major role in her recovery.
“I’m so grateful to everyone who has supported me over the last couple of years as well as the kindness and generosity of my colleagues at the RDKB,” Riverin said in a news release.
“This cause is very personal to me but it affects everyone. Nearly one in two Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer, and one in four will die from the disease.”
Looking the picture of health, you wouldn’t expect Riverin’s journey to have involved 12 rounds of chemotherapy, short-course radiation therapy and three surgeries in 2021 alone.
Apart from a small bump just below her right clavicle, beneath which lies a power port tube to her heart, there is little evidence on the outside of her scuffle with cancer. Her chemo tube is flushed monthly, and it remains in place as a constant reminder that remission is unlikely to last. She is very upbeat about it all and the team will be celebrating the fundraising event at a waterpark afterwards.
“My biggest concern is for my butt!” she says. “I’m going to be on that saddle for a long stretch.”
Riverin has been clocking over 100km every week as part of her training regime and regularly commutes up and down the hill from Rossland to RDKB’s headquarters in Trail.
You can donate to her team at tourdecure.ca/fundraiser/justbeatit. They have set a fundraising goal of $7,500.