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Cyclist in training to try to conquer cancer

Father of cancer victim organizes Ride to Conquer Cancer bicycle team to raise money
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Steve Parsons created Team Taylor, named for his son who died of cancer in 2003. Now, 63, Parsons is about to make his sixth ride with his team of 22 riders and support crew in the this year’s Ride to Conquer Cancer. (CHRIS BUSH/The News Bulletin)

On Saturday (Aug. 26), the streets of Cloverdale, B.C., will come alive with the whirr of gears and clicks of shifters of thousands of bicycles at the start of the 2017 Ride to Conquer Cancer.

The ninth annual ride is a two-day 250- to 300-kilometre – there are two route challenges to choose from – cycling event from Vancouver to Seattle, for which thousands of riders, as teams and individuals, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to to battle cancer.

Among them will be Steve Parsons, a wine sales representative who moved to Nanaimo in June. Now 63, this will be his sixth year participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer.

Parsons, whose son died in 2003 at age 17 after battling brain cancer for 10 years, rides with a red Power Ranger doll strapped to the front of his bike.

“When Taylor was eight years old he was really into the Power Rangers. That was his big thing,” Parsons said. “He had a bunch of these action figures, the Power Rangers … they slowly got lost over time. When he was 17, at Christmas time, a few months before he passed away, him and his mom went out and bought me this Power Ranger, to give me, kind of as a memento and this guy I mount on my bike and he leads the way down to Seattle every year.”

It was a friend, Matthew Acheson, who participated in Ride to Conquer Cancer who inspired Parsons to take up cycling.

“I had never ridden a road, not since I was 16 anyway, I had ridden a mountain bike a lot, but never ridden a road bike,” Parsons said. “I phoned him up about three months after he completed the ride and said, ‘I want to ride with you next year’ … So, when I sat and had coffee with him he said let’s form a team and name it after your son.”

Parsons, who also lost his father to lung cancer in 1979, created Team Taylor in his son’s name, while he was living in White Rock. Each year riders sign on with the team for several months of training and to raise money. This year Team Taylor, which will have about 22 riders plus support vehicles, ranks among the top 10 fundraising teams with more than $102,000 raised for this year’s ride as of last week.

Since Team Taylor was formed, it has raised more than $330,000. Each team member must commit to raising money, but the majority of the team’s money is raised through fundraisers hosted at two wine and beer events hosted each year by a company Parsons has partnered with.

“Right now they’re held in Coquitlam each year, but now that I live over here I might be looking to duplicate that on the Island,” he said.

To learn more about Team Taylor and the Ride to Conquer Cancer presented by Wheaton Precious Metals benefiting the B.C. Cancer Foundation, visit http://bit.ly/2v5UiAc.

photos@nanaimobulletin.com



Chris Bush

About the Author: Chris Bush

As a photographer/reporter with the Nanaimo News Bulletin since 1998.
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