Dear Editor,
Re: Cyclist’s cause worn on his sleeve
I just got back from holidays and getting caught up on my Wheel reading I found the article written about me and the recent Ride to Conquer Cancer. It was a nice surprise and I want to thank you for publishing it. It is not within my character to be in the limelight, so I just want to make something perfectly clear. I’m not the hero here. Not even close.
Maybe someday my kids will bless me with that honour, I hope so, but not here. I am just a person (still scarred of road riding), but blessed with a good set of legs and lungs, who has been given the opportunity, to ride and raise funds for research against cancer.
That research gives a chance to someone, somewhere who hears those awful words. It’s a chance that my wife got… that my grandpa, my mentor, and my Mom didn’t get.
I admit, I have done something very unique and powerful with the names on my ride shirt, and will continue to do so. But those names… like thousands of others that are on the minds of many riders…those victims, fighters, and survivors, like a real war, are the ones that have gone off and fought and are still fighting.
And like a real war, some have paid the ultimate price, and some come back.
Those are the real heroes and heroines.
David Marquardt
Okotoks
