Not all journeys start with a single step, some start with a push of a peddle.
While most twenty-somethings are busy finding summer employment, Kieren Britton, age 21, of Kimberly B.C. decided to pay tribute to her grandfather by charging head-on into the daunting task of a coast to coast bike tour to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer.
The Saskatoon, SK, native started her cycling fundraiser titled Up Lad Up (in reference to poet A.E. Housman) on May 7, in Vancouver, B.C. and will hopefully pull-up in St. John’s, N.L. by the beginning of August.
Britton was able to get her employer, Re/Max Real Estate to not only give her the time-off, but offered to be her sponsor for the journey.
Britton has a personal connection to the disease and found out more awareness is needed to make a positive change.
“It’s in memory of him but as soon as I started researching, it made me realize it’s not a matter of if you get prostate cancer, it’s a matter of when you get prostate cancer,” Britton told the Times-Herald.
Through her research, Britton discovered one in six men in Canada will be diagnosed and within the decade it will rise to one in four developing prostate cancer. An early diagnosis of the disease can mean the difference between life and death.
For more on this story, pick-up the next issue of the Times-Herald.
