The event, now in its seventh year, raises operating funds for the lodge which provides a not-for-profit home-away-from-home for cancer patients from northern B.C. who are receiving treatments in Prince George.
“Today is not just about the climb,” said Doug Bell, planning committee chair and owner of Northern Lights Estate Winery, during the opening ceremonies.
“How do we get people to understand the climb is a symbol of what cancer patients are going through on a daily basis?”
Bell said going through a little bit of pain – like pushing yourself up the cutbanks – is a small bit of discomfort for those who are facing a significant amount of discomfort in their daily lives.“This event started seven years ago when two people from the Canadian cancer society wandered into our office and said ‘Hey could you sell some daffodils for daffodil month?’ and we said, ‘Well why don’t we do something a little bit better?,” explained Bell.“Why don’t we bring the community together, talk about something that means a lot to us, which is supporting cancer treatment in the north, and at the same time get a little bit of exercise?”
However, the past two years saw the event need to innovate to work within provincial restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19.
It has now returned to its original format of a one-day event in the spring with the community coming together to climb up the cutbanks supported by vendors, food trucks, and live music.“Hearing the word cancer is terrifying and it may not even be your specific family, but it may be friends or people that you love and think about what it means you live somewhere else and you need to come to Prince George,” added Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond.She then told the crowd of participants a personal story about her 85-year-old friend Eva from McBride who had to come stay at Kordyban Lodge while she was getting cancer treatments.“What it meant was that her daughter could come and stay with her and I just want everyone who helps with the Lodge to know that Eva did so much better because she was surrounded by people who love her in a place that was beautiful and it helped her through the weeks and weeks of treatments that she faced,” said Bond.
“Today is about fun and exercise but it is also about giving people that chance when they are faced with a horrible, horrible diagnosis.”
The Kordyban Lodge offers numerous amenities to help people feel comfortable and safe during their stay, including private rooms, a media room, family room, games room, spiritual room, laundry facilities, guest computer areas, and more.The Kordyban Lodge also offers a wig and breast prosthesis bank.“We are almost over 800 people per year from all over the north and they don’t have to travel far towards Vancouver for their treatments,” said Snehdeep Kaur client services coordinator at the Kordyban Lodge.“It is great to see the people coming with all of their fears and anxieties but leaving happily just having all the laughs and the cries in the Lodge - when they leave there is just friendship, friendship with staff, volunteers and with each other.”
The Planning Committee has a goal of raising $60,000 in support of the Kordyban Lodge through this event.Participants and sponsors drummed up $50,000 in 2020, for a total of $250,000 over the six years the fundraising event has been running. The money raised through the Climb for Cancer goes toward the approximately $1-million in annual costs associated with operating the Lodge.
