Islander bikes across Canada to help children fight cancer
CBC
These days Nathan Carter wakes up at about five, then by six he gets on the road and continues his trek biking home to P.E.I. from British Columbia.
"It's been a heck of a heatwave out here in B.C., so I'm trying to race the sun right now," he said from Kamloops.
Carter launched the trip six days ago in Vancouver, with the goal of raising $5,000 for the SickKids Foundation. He hopes to reach P.E.I. in about two months.
"I hope I raise some money for the SickKids Foundation, but the ultimate goal is to inspire," he said.
"You can help out and do things in different ways, be it volunteering at a soup kitchen or whatever it maybe. You don't have to do some big grand gesture, like what I'm so fortunate to be able to do here."
Carter is one of more than 15,000 people who have registered for this year's Great Cycle Challenge, which started in 2016. It encourages riders to set a personal riding goal throughout August and the money raised will go to childhood cancer research, said the foundation in an email.
Carter said he had always wanted to cycle across the country for charity, inspired by his friend Matt Lawrence, who completed a three-month bike trek from P.E.I. to San Diego to raise money for the P.E.I. Literacy Alliance six years ago.
And he wanted to raise money to help children fight cancer — a cause that is close to his heart, he said.
"Cancer has affected probably everyone. And definitely myself, I've lost a lot of family members. Just recently my father-in-law passed away last year due to cancer, and, specifically with children, it's awful," he said.
"Anything I can do to help out those little warriors, that's great."
He started to get himself back in shape enough to cycle in a moderate race last summer. This year he took two months off from work to go on the 6,000-km bike trek.
He said one of the challenges he's facing is the heat, so he wakes up early to get on the road and shuts down between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to avoid it.
Another is wildfires, which are taking place across B.C., he said.
"If there is a fire, the biggest concern on my end would be the smoke inhalation, because when you're biking you do breathe quite heavy," he said. "But the air quality seems good right now."
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.