Hollywood came to Bellerose last week as almost 500 students put their mettles to the pedals and raised some $153,000 for cancer research.
About 500 students rode stationary bikes for 24 hours May 26 and 27 during the 19th annual Bellerose Bikeathon. This legendary school event sees student teams ride bikes for up to 48 hours to raise money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Kids with Cancer Society, and (through a head-shave that happens during the event) the Stollery Children’s Hospital. The Bikeathon has now raised roughly $3.2 million for cancer research since the yearly fundraiser began.
Students paraded onto the school’s front yard Thursday morning as a live band played the 12th Street Rag. Many were dressed as film characters to reflect this year’s Hollywood theme, which urged students to be “directors of change.”
This year’s Bikeathon differed from the usual indoor, 48-hour affairs of the past due to the pandemic, said co-organizer Jeff Beaton. Riders rode their bikes outdoors to guard against COVID-19, protected from the elements by a city of tents, and pedalled for just 24 hours spread across two days so they wouldn’t have to ride at night.
Survivor’s story
Inspiring the youths was Beaumont resident and cancer survivor Rickie-Lee Hildebrand, who spoke during the opening ceremonies about how she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (the same bone cancer Terry Fox had) just before her high-school graduation.
“Cancer was the absolute last thing I ever thought I would have to worry about as an 18-year-old,” she told the crowd, but her doctor had told her the painful, tennis-ball-sized lump on her knee was a tumour.
“It dawned on me that I could lose my limb, I could lose my life,” she said.
“At that moment, my high school life was over.”
Hildebrand said she lost her hair and much of her mobility during chemotherapy. Doctors replaced bones in her knee and leg with titanium, making her a “bionic woman.”
Hildebrand said she did graduate from high school (on crutches, with a wig) and went on to become a teacher in Leduc. Today, the metal in her leg reminds her that every step she takes is a gift.
Hildebrand encouraged tired riders to think on how their efforts would give the gift of time to those faced with cancer.
“Thanks to the absolutely incredible fundraising efforts and donors such as yourselves, my life did not end at 18,” she said.
Stars assemble
Unlike last year’s Bikeathon, which was pounded by wind and rains, this year’s Bikeathon took place under sunny skies.
This may have been due to the presence of Thor, the Norse god of thunder, as portrayed by Bellerose Bikeathon participant Ala Kanafani.
“Cancer sucks!” Kanafani said, in a passable Thor voice.
Kanafani said his team went with an Avengers theme and 3D-printed replicas of Loki’s mind-controlling staff and Wolverine’s adamantium claws. In addition to a plastic Mjolnir, Kanafani had donned a shaggy wig and beard to reflect the out-of-shape version of Thor portrayed in recent films.
“It’s definitely getting to me,” he said of the beard as he adjusted it, “but you gotta keep riding on. The people with cancer suffered way more than this.”
Grade 11 student Michael Lastric was dressed in a black suit with dark sunglasses as part of Team Incognito — a theme inspired by the film Men in Black and his fine fashion sense.
“Nobody will know I’m here. I’ll be neuralyzing everyone with my glasses,” he joked, referring to the film’s mind-wiping gadgets. (He also had a tiny ray-gun/squirt gun if any alien invaders showed up.)
Lastric said the Bikeathon was much more exciting this year than the last as teams could hang out without social distancing measures. He encouraged other students to take part in next year’s event.
“If you participate in this, you’re really a Bulldog. You’re part of something special.”
SHRed study
As hundreds rode against cancer out front, a smaller group of Bellerose athletes lined up at a mobile lab behind the school to stand against concussions.
University of Alberta researchers were at Bellerose May 26 to do baseline and follow-up tests on participants in the Surveillance in High School and Community Sport to Reduce Concussions and Consequences of Concussions in Canadian Youth (SHRed) project.
Led by University of Calgary physiotherapist Carolyn Emery and funded by the National Football League, SHRed aims to study the prevention, detection, and treatment of concussions on about 6,000 Canadian high school athletes. Students in it undergo a battery of psychological and physical tests each year for three years to establish baseline conditions and receive free treatment and evaluation should they suffer a concussion.
The U of A SHRed team tested about a hundred Bellerose and Paul Kane students in 2020 before the pandemic derailed the study by cancelling sports and sports-related concussions, said co-investigators Connie Lebrun and Martin Mrazik. The team switched to online evaluations and launched a sub-study on how the pandemic affected the mental health of these athletes.
The study has since been extended to 2025, Mrazik said. The U of A team is now recruiting more students for the study with the help of the SHRed Mobile — a mobile lab capable of performing blood and fitness tests on athletes, which hit the streets last winter.
“There seems to be a select group of athletes that may be at risk for [negative] mental-health outcomes after a concussion,” Mrazik said, when asked about initial results from this study.
Mrazik said this study should help researchers identify these at-risk athletes so they can get proper treatment. Other teams were evaluating neuromuscular training routines to see if they could reduce injury rates in rugby players.
Bellerose rugby player Audrey Sutton enrolled in the study earlier this year at the suggestion of her coach. That decision came in handy about three weeks ago when her head struck the ground after a hard tackle.
“I got up and I was holding my head and I started forgetting where I was,” she said, which she knew was a symptom of a concussion.
Sutton said the SHRed team lined her up for treatment and evaluation within days — a process which would have taken months without their help. With the team’s help, she was fully recovered and back to playing rugby within weeks.
Mrazik said the U of A team had about 250 Edmonton-area athletes enrolled in SHRed and hopes to recruit about a hundred more.
Sutton encouraged student athletes to sign up for SHRed and take concussions seriously.
“You only get one brain in your life and you need to take care of it.”
Visit shredconcussions.ca for details.
