If somebody had of told me one year earlier

Inspector Kirk Kelusky presents Nipissing Chapter Ride For Dad co-chair Terry Daigle with a cheque for the funds raised during the first fundraiser in June 2008.

During a simple social outing one day in Ottawa the founder and National President of Motorcycle Ride For Dad, Garry Janz, learned just how devastating prostate cancer can be.

“It wasn’t that long ago that I was having coffee with a friend of mine named Charlie,” Janz explains.

“I hadn’t known Charlie very long, and I was having coffee and I said ‘Charlie what are you up to this afternoon,’ and he said Garry if somebody had of told me one year earlier about the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test I wouldn’t be going home this afternoon to plan my own funeral.”

“And that hit me between the eyes like ... I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to say, I got in my truck and drove home and thought about it and that’s how the first Ride For Dad started in Ottawa.”

Prostate cancer is the number one cancer threat to Canadian men. It will afflict 1 in 7 men in their lifetimes – that translates into approximately 24,700 men this year alone, and the Motorcycle Ride For Dad group is doing all they can to increase awareness, educate men and raise funds for research.

The issue has not gone unnoticed locally and in early 2008 with the support of the North Bay Police Service the Nipissing chapter of Motorcycle Ride For Dad was instituted to help get the word out.

“The significance is that we brought the ride to town as a charity because there was nothing being done for fundraising for prostate cancer. It is probably the least funded but most diagnosed of all the cancers so that initiative encouraged us to bring this to town,” says local chapter co-chair Terry Daigle.

With over 180 riders in the June 14th, the Nipissing chapter had a very successful first ride and Janz along with other members of the National Chapter of the Motorcycle Ride For Dad group were in town Monday to present a cheque to the local chapter.
Daigle was please to receive the $18,654 and detailed that 65 per cent of the funds will go to prostate cancer research, with the remaining 35 per cent going toward education and awareness.

Daigle says the funds are great but the single most important thing behind the group is for men to take action.

“Get checked that’s our whole local drive initially is to encourage men to get the PSA test at a very minimum and get the annual physical done with their doctor and have their prostates checked.”