Guelph woman completes emotional fundraiser for cancer care

There was an emotional send off for a Guelph woman who battled cancer and is now raising thousands of dollars for others going through a similar journey.

On Monday, Cyndy McLean set off on the last of 10 bike rides to raise funds for chemotherapy chairs at the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre.

It’s a deeply personal cause for McLean, who underwent chemo treatments after she was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer five years ago.

“Today is the 10th and final ride of a fundraiser called 10x21 Cycling 4 Chemo Chairs,” McLean told CTV News ahead of the ride. “This fundraiser is really designed to honour my five year anniversary of getting cancer care at this very facility and also to honour all the people that took great care of me,” she explained.

“I had 21 treatments over a 10 month period, so that inspired the name 10x21.”

McLean said she has been pretty lucky throughout the course of the fundraiser and only encountered rain once while out on a ride.

On Sunday afternoon, she was surrounded by her supporters, family, and staff from the cancer centre as she prepared to head out one last time. She said that kind of support has been a driving force.

“There’s probably 500 people that I will be sending thank you cards to. I think that the fact that it has gone so smoothly, the fact that we’ve surpassed our fundraising goal – when we first started, we thought one chemo chair because they’re $7,000 a piece. Then we started getting momentum and we got to four. Now, we’re almost at eight.”

According to the Grand River Hospital Foundation, chemo chairs are specially designed to provide comfort to patients while they undergo treatment. The chairs also help address some of the ergonomic needs of nurses who work with the patients.

Throughout the campaign, McLean has taken her handcycle to Guleph, Fergus, Elora, Elmira, Milbank/Linwood, North Perth, Waterloo, Cambridge and Kitchener.

McLean uses a handcycle due to a spinal cord injury after she fell off an 80 foot cliff while hiking in 2003.

Gratitude

Before McLean set off on her final journey, several speakers addressed what her commitment means to the cancer centre.

“I just wanted to start by saying how incredibly thankful we are to all of the donors who supported Cyndy, but have also supported the cancer centre over the last number of years,” Chemotherapy Clinical Manager Colleen Graham said. “We’re a busy place. Some of the staff are able to be with us today. We see over 100 patients every single day that come through the chemotherapy suite,” she explained.

“Our staff worked very hard to make each and every one of them comfortable and to have the best experience they can at a really hard time in their life,” Graham said.

“As our chairs were starting to wear out last year, we started to turn them over, knowing in our thoughts that patients can be with us for half an hour, an hour, or they can be with us for 8 or 9 hours depending on their treatment.”

President and CEO of the Grand River Hospital Foundation Paul McIntyre Royston stepped up to the microphone to say the foundation is in debt to McLean.

“I say that because the way these things are funded in our health system means that it has to come from us,” he explained. “Virtually every single piece of equipment in a hospital has to be funded locally, whether that’s donations and sponsorship, like we’re seeing with these incredible community events, from parking, to our pharmacy services. All of those moneys generated buy the equipment. Otherwise, we don’t have new chairs.”

McIntyre Royston had a surprise in store for McLean to celebrate what her work has meant to the foundation.

“Right beside you, you’ll see our campaign vision that ‘Care Never Stops,” he said to McLean. “At a certain [donation] level, we give people a letter. So ladies and gentlemen, the ‘C’ in Care Never Stops is for Cyndy.”

McLean will be gifted the bright pink letter C from the Care Never Stops sign in recognition of her tireless fundraising efforts.

For McLean, the journey has offered her a chance to reflect.

“[A cancer diagnosis] is terrifying. It’s a long journey,” she said. “So the idea that you can be beyond that and be looking back with a lot of gratitude. I’m really grateful for this body that’s been through a lot and then can do ten rides.”

Ongoing fundraising

Although Monday marked McLean’s last official ride of the campaign, donations are still being accepted online.