When you’re down, Dallas Shepherdson is the kind of guy who knows how to push you back up. The local hockey coach recently undertook a fundraising effort combined with an extreme workout to help out Jayden Strauss, a 16-year-old who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare malignant cancer of the muscle tissue, back in November.
While Strauss has been undergoing treatment to fight the disease, Shepherdson thought it would be a good idea to help the teen’s family to pay for the costs by raising money doing something he knows how to do very well.
Pushups. A whole lot of them, in fact. He’s been a fan of pushups ever since he was a kid. He pledged to do one pushup for every dollar that was donated to the cause, along with running one kilometre for every $100. The goal was set at $10,000 but the collection on the organizer’s website at straussfundraiser.straussdevelopments.ca stopped at $14,500. That meant 14,500 pushups and 145 km.
“I like doing them. I don’t know if I like doing them that much…” he laughed. “I was trying to find something that I could do. I can do pushups and I can run.”
Starting out last Tuesday, he ended up with a major event at Goodlife Fitness on Saturday where members of the community joined in to help him complete the tally. All tolled, he personally did 7,550 pushups and ran 67.5 km.
“It was a lot of fun. It was a bigger hit than I thought it would be. There must be a lot of people that wanted to see me punished-slash-help Jayden out,” he joked, noting that members of the community, including elementary school classes and several sports teams, helped out with 6,500 pushups. A tally for how far the community members ran wasn’t available.
“I think that should be good for Jayden. It was amazing to see the community support!”
Strauss’ father, James, said that his son appreciated the show of solidarity and strength by so many of his friends from his many sports activities. Jayden has played in minor hockey, and recently moved to basketball, football and soccer, where he is still listed with the Victoria Club.
He’s a very active and very healthy kid, his dad says. That’s why it came it to everyone’s surprise when a bump turned in a cancer diagnosis.
“We thought it was an abscess. They did an MRI and figured out that it was cancer cells. It’s a really uncommon cancer. I think there’s only about 30 cases a year in Canada. You think about it logically and you’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery.”
He added that Jayden is receiving treatment from “a really good oncology team” at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. He’s in good spirits but hasn’t been able to attend school at Ă©cole Secondaire Ste. Marguerite d’Youville or keep up with his sports, however.
“He’s got a year of chemo and radiation ahead of him, and a possible operation. It’s fairly extensive treatment but he seems to be taking it pretty well so far. There’s been positive results.”
The fundraiser was focused on helping pay for Jayden’s daily immune-boosting injections. They’re not covered by insurance. Shepherdson said that when he discovered the financial burden of his former goalie’s treatment, he just couldn’t sit there and not doing anything to help.
“I was really unaware. I think that people have the misconception that everything is paid for with most cancer treatment. I’m a little bit more educated now. I’ve read articles where some people have to refinance their houses,” he said.
The Strauss was humbled by the groundswell of support.
“It’s a really, really kind gesture of these people to step forward. We sure never asked for them to do that. Obviously, he’s affected a few people throughout his minor sporting career. It’s really appreciated.”