East Ottawa Star
Published: Friday, March 13, 2009 

Pounding the pavement for cancer

As you may have read on www.EastOttawa.ca or in our sister publication, the Orléans Star, both Transcontinental regional manager Michael Curran and myself participated as white collar boxers in the second-annual Fight for the Cure on Saturday, March 7 at the Westin Hotel.

For Mike it was his rookie debut while I racked up my second sanctioned amateur boxing exhibition bout. We both spilled some blood, took some head shots – from 16-ounce gloves through our headgear and mouth guards – and put on a show for about 400-plus dinner and boxing guests who paid top dollar to help raise funds for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation (ORCF).

Now it’s back to the gym and hitting the streets as the running season is here again with the snow melting as fast as the economy is contracting.

But it got me thinking, if two guys like Mike and myself can get in decent shape and put it on the line for cancer like we did, why can’t we build a movement of east-end guys (and gals, absolutely) to help the ORCF in a bigger way?

By way of disclosure, it is no secret that I am the past volunteer chairman of the ORCF, so yes I have a vested interest.

Cancer is now the number one killer disease worldwide: it takes more lives each year globally than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Closer to home, one in two people in our community will have a brush with cancer in their lifetime. The good news is that survivorship rates are up and continue to climb.

So let’s keep this trend going by raising funds, getting fit and having fun all at the same time. And the ideal date to do this is on June 21 in the annual Alterna Do it for Dad (DIFD) Father’s Day series of races up and down the Rideau Canal from Carleton University northward and back.

You can walk, jog or run in the 2-km, 5-km or 10-km races. This event is three months away so it gives you plenty of time to train, lose a few pounds, raise funds and help yourself and the 15 people in our city who receive a new cancer diagnosis each and every day.

But I need to hear from you. If you want to join me we can enter the biggest team in the decade-long history of the DIFD race and show the city that we in Orléans can pound the pavement, raise some serious dough and make a massive difference in the lives of cancer patients and their families across our region.

If there is enough interest, your not-so-humble scribe will take care of the paperwork, host weekly training runs, offer tips on raising funds and find sponsors for some great post race prizes and fellowship.

Are you in? Just e-mail me. And we need a cool team name, any ideas?

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Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca.