Hey, Chase.

I'm a fellow mtb'er.  I ride a few XC races each year, including some Chico races like the 24 Hours of Hot August Nights, the occasional Buckwallow O-Cup (I love Buckwallow), and a local weekly race series.  I don't get a lot of training, but I enjoy my cycling, despite having absolutely no natural aptitude for it.

I've looked at TRTCC, and I feel like a bit of a whimp for not signing up.  It's not the distance that gets me - I've got a nice road bike and having done 50 uniterrupted km racing on a mtb at Hardwood Hills, I figure a paved and mostly flat ride to the Falls over two days should be more than doable.  It's the fundraising that has me hesitant - specifically the $2500 requirement.  I am terrible at asking people for money.  It's not like cancer hasn't affected my family and friends as well.

So perhaps I'll join you, or maybe I won't, but I'll lay the gauntlet down for the other wondercafe'ers here:  Go ahead and make this atheist look cheap.  A little from a lot of people would really help Chase here reach that $2500 milestone, and for an excellent cause.

It sounds like your very passionate about this, Chase.  I haven't had any family at Princess Margaret, but I know they do great work there.

Good luck with your ride!

Thanks for the replies, and I had some donations through you terrific people at WonderCafe! Thank you so very much.

Now i have $265, $2,235 to go. Keep them coming. If you can't, then pass on the link:

http://www.conquercancer.ca/goto/chasecameron

or call 1-877-699-2453 and donate to Participant ID 541778-8, Chase Cameron

then email me at: chase.cameron@live.com and let me know and I will email my training progress to each donor beginning in April. And there'll be emails and pics of the ride afterwards, I promise. For now, I'm hiking my  buns off.  This is my first year doing this, I know I'll be better prepared in future rides. I'll make it, I already beat cancer.

My brother didn't, but with research, others will.

Thanks again, all of you, for prayers, donations, sending donors my way. It lifts the spirit.

I'm busily trying to equip my bike and me for the ride...and will see it through.

Thanks, Chase

Thanks, Hilary.

They were great to Jerry and he emailed and called me to ask about my rides when i was house/cat-sitting for him in Whitby while he was in Toronto. He loved to hear about the rides and laughed at my swallowing bugs and accidentally soaking in a puddle deeper than I'd expected, running into low branches. He loved it.

Thanks for the good encouragement.

Hi Chansen....Oh, i was discouraged. I gave up for months. Jerry died, rich family wouldn't chip in, "why should we pay for you to ride?" or 'How can you ride on a disability? you must not be disabled.."

Oh, i hate that one.

Because of pain meds. It hurts, i have to lay down and rest, go further, lay down, pain pill, go on. I have degenerative disc, fibromyalgia (that hurts), rheumatoid arthritis, a left knee needing replacing in a couple years, wonky hips, fused neck vertebrae (passenger, car crash), improperly healed broken right elbow that grinds, migraines, and wicked asthma. But i live with pain, what's more. My brother would love to feel anything, even pain, right now. Instead, he's gone. Now I beat it twice, I'm cancer free for 9 years, thank God.

I'm riding. All I need is a lot of 10 dollar donations, 20...more, they all add up. Tax receipts if Canadian, my undying gratitude, literally undying, take that Cancer, to Americans and others. I'm American born so I ride for both countries I guess, and all trans people.

and Jerry. This is for you Jerry. Wish you were here to see.....

Hey I'm also doing the ride to conquer cancer-but the Alberta one.

Which ride are you in Chase?

Have you joined a team? Teams make fundraising easier as you can fundraise together.

I am supporting my grandson and daughter in their ride - good luck - I  know some have commited themselves to such a cause - but I am bothered by your family response. 

Hey I just re-read and you are riding TO to Niagra Falls.

I'm riding from Calgary into the mountians. (and back).

This will be my first year in this event. Frineds did it last year.

Great idea Tabitha about joining a team ... lots of fellowship & joint sense of purpose, encouragement along the journey - whether fundraising or riding, I should think.   Congrats to all who are riding!  I do usually support some friends who do the ride ... but if they do not this year, I'll certainly consider sponsoring you cannondalefreak.  Good luck!

I didn't know I'd be able to replace stolen bike until last month...not on a team. on M200, the Toronto to Hamilton, Hamilton to Niagara Falls 100 miles a day ride.

Alone.

I really hate asking for money. I hate more when I get "That's a toronto hospital, Hamilton has it's own." And they seriously say things like that.

I honestly wish I could just sponsor myself. I'm just going to keep trying and not stop sweating until I reach about 2,000 dollars. I'm at 265 and holding. I woke up at 2 this morning, panicked i hadn't raised enough, it was ride day, and they wouldn't let me ride. My mother was laughing.

She says I'll never make it. "You're doing it for that free shirt."

I won't give up. I just can't. It's for my brother.

cannondalefreak would be very grateful. every time the little money raised thermometer goes up I feel less worried.

I LOVE your icon!  My family is a tad insane and as my brother said a year before he got sick, "You never had a chance in this family. Grandma hated you and I don't know why, mom does, but she hates everyone.."

I just want to ride. I'll organize better next year. It's the first year. I'm learning.

Thanks for sponsoring the others. Good for you!

Now i'll get, from others, "I'd love to  but I just sent a thousand to Haiti..."

I'd reply to that by saying, "it's actually for the RESEARCH CENTRE , not the day-to-day operation of the hospital.  That RESEARCH CENTRE is one of the top 5 in the world.  People everywhere benefit from donations made to it.   So people treated at local hospitals actually DO benefit. "   And the donors benefit too ... it's a tax deduction ... don't forget to remind them about that!

Interesting The money raised in Alberta stays in AB but we have a central Alberta cancer Board. Our money raised goes for treatment and research.

I know the team I joined is still accepting new members so Cannondale Chase do consider a team. Once the snow goes we'll also do some training rides together and I find it encourages me to know a few other friendly faces in the ride and at rest stops. We won't actually ride together or anything that weekend. We will all go at our own pace.

Yeah, training rides would be fun. Just remember, I stop for asthma and pain med breaks, then ride like a fiend, then repeat.

I'll pick up my bike end of March and be on the trail earliest of April.

Thanks for those donations those of you who did. Hopefully I have enough in another two months or I may pull out my hair....I'm working on the donations. Family is clearly out, but no surprise really. Working on others. Church is out, i just stopped going.

Nothing in a week, but a fellow in Toronto replied to my YouTube plea

with a vid of his own in reply asking people to help me, so here's hoping. Nothing from family or friend, even my brother's friends, which shocks and annoys me. It's like i'm being punished by family, friends and his friends for being transgender. I know it's ticked many of them off, they're offended. But why spit in Jerry's face over my facial hair? I'm doing this to benefit others and to honour my brother and they just ditch me.

It confounds me. someone at a trans support meeting said to me, "Have you asked your church?" they go to the UC i attend when I can. "Yes. I've been there 11 years. I'm nothing to them. I'm avoided as I am poor. They don't know, it wasn't publicized, that about 10.5 years a thank you article I wrote about their outreach program brought it 75K. They see poor, trans, and I'm ....frankly, dismissed."

"I am trans and they treat me nice."

Uh, to her face. I hear them eviscerate her all the time and defend her.

I have to print out business cards next month..i think for 100 dollars, for the ride to hand out and beg. I did email where my brother worked for ages. said "I don't want an 'we would just love to help you. Unfortunately..' email back".

It's exhausting, fibromyalgia/degenerative disc/sicatica/rheumatoid, migraines/asthma and thining shoulder ligaments (left shoulder--ex husband tried to tear that arm out of the socket back in the day) aside. The church? Not a penny. I stopped going. It's martyrdom to try. But I won't give up. I just have to keep at it, and I thank those of you who donated. It means a lot to me, on behalf of myself as a 2 time cancer survivor and for my brother, who would be so grateful were he here to see this. Watch my YouTube, you see his pic and i talk about him. and get to hear my changing voice. I cringe at it, but that's me.

Cheer,a nd much thanks for the encouragement and the donations that came/come in. You give me hope and I needed that.

Chase

I'm seeing other riders make their minimum and blast by it before Fall even hit. I'm not so worried about surpassing the minimum 2,500 dollars. I'm scared I won't make it. I'm working at it, but get No No No so often I could just scream. I'm going to get on a bike after what will be 9 weeks training on a new bike, ride 322.2 km in two days, and people can't donate?

I'm out of ideas.  It's really frustrating. I know there's all this stuff going on in the world, but I guess I thought my being a 2 time cancer survivor, my brother dying of it, and the fact that it's touched the lives of so many people, directly and/or indirectly to count for something. I'm not asking for a free lunch, clothes, something for me. I'm asking to torture myself to keep a promise to my brother, one I'll keep every year.

Suggestions? Remember I'm poor and throwing a party or BBQ isn't going to work. I can't even get my rich relations to give a dollar. Not a penny.