Gerrard Family

This May, the Gerrard family is joining team Miles for Myles for our fourth year of the Workout to Conquer Cancer! Our beloved cousin Myles passed away on June 1, 2022, at the age of 15, just 15 months after he was diagnosed with Diffuse Infiltrating Gastric cancer. We loved him so very much, and so to honor him, and support all the other BC Cancer patients and their families, we will be getting active every day and also taking on some special projects:

• Kyle's goal this year, in honour of the $80k overall team goal, is to cumulatively swim 80km, run 80km, and mountain bike 80km. Is this even possible? We don't have the technology to know but stay tuned to find out. The final challenge being a run up Mt. Seymour with Emma K and possibly a support car with 4-way flashers to guard against all the absolute psychos that climb that hill at lightspeed.
• Emma K will be running all over the shop and has committed to 69 km of running in addition to her soccer and dance training!
• Melissa will be moving every day for 30 minutes including 3 strength workouts a week and 1 hike because its Canmore and they have to hike to maintain a residence there (legally).
• Dearest Mother (Diane) is going hard with 1 hour of Pilates (whatever that is, possibly an Ancient Greek hero?) each day!
• David has lost his mind slightly and will be doing 2 0 0 pushups per day. That's more than most of us have done in our entire life. But it's NYC, not much else to do there in that small, rural municipality.
• Mark will be cruising the neighborhood via power walking for at least 60 minutes or 5,000 steps a day. Move aside or prepare to be wacked with his power walking poles.
• Ryan had some minor issues with his kettlebell last year so this time he will be..
• Emma G will be going strong with 30 minutes of 'get up and move' every day. Emma has been steadily improving her running and it's actually super impressive. Emma has also been volun-told that she will be the team's expert physio to keep us all in top form! Bless her.

In keeping with the Myles we all know and love our family is excited to get goofy and have as much fun as possible this month with all our schemes!!

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Team Miles for Myles is raising funds this year for one of the BC Cancer Foundation's key priorities, pediatric cancer research led by Dr. Poul Sorensen and his colleagues at BC Cancer.

Dr. Sorensen's lab is currently focused on two urgent priorities within childhood cancer research:

1. Targeting high-risk pediatric cancers with new immunotherapy approaches.
2. Understanding and targeting stress adaptive pathways in high-risk pediatric cancers and how these pathways lead to aggressive metastatic disease.

What is very exciting about both these research streams is that they could lead to available treatment for pediatric cancer patients in as little as one to one and a half years! This is significant because, up until now, children have had very little access to immunotherapy and have had no treatment for aggressive metastatic disease.

Team Miles for Myles, with your support, has raised $600K over four years. This year, our goal is to add another $80K. Please help us achieve our goal. Myles would expect us not to give up.

Our team joins others across the province and beyond to move, no matter where we are, every day of the month. Cancer impacts one in two British Columbians. This challenge is more than exercise; it's about joining a community that knows we can make a difference through fundraising.

So, as we prepare to move through May, please show your support by donating to our team today.

If you wish to form a team, we welcome you. Or please join us at one of these remarkable events this May:

1. The 4th Annual Buckets for Myles Basketball Tourney will be held at Rockridge Secondary on Sunday, June 1. Everyone is welcome to come and cheer the players on. The event will be held from noon to 3pm at 5350 Headland Dr, West Vancouver, BC V7W 3H2.

More events will be posted soon!

Thank you in advance for your donations and support. Lots of love, the Gerrards