After her brother, Patrick, and then her mother, Louise, won the fights of their lives against cancer; Maria McInnis vowed to make the fight easier for other families who needed to support their loved ones through the same fight.
Just over two years ago, she rode her bicycle from Timmins to Sudbury to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society, but for her, that wasn’t enough.
This past August, Maria and her sister Julia did the trip again, but this time they didn’t ride, they ran.
With the support of family, friends, the generosity of the community and business, the two dedicated runners were able to surpassed their original goal of $20,000 by almost 20 percent and raise $23,743.99 for the Canadian Cancer Society and its Wheels for Hope program.
Today the McInnis sisters, along with their mother and brother met with Dave McLaughlin, Manager of the Timmins Community Office for the Canadian Cancer Society to deliver the donation and provide the much needed support for Wheels for Hope.
“I can’t say enough about your family and what you do for us, specifically our transportation program,” said McLaughlin as he received the cheque.
“The donation is going toward our transportation program Wheels of Hope, which takes patients to and from the cancer centre in Sudbury,” he explained “Not just from Timmins but from all points within our territory which goes from Horne Payne to Englehart including; Hearst, Kapuskasing, Cochrane, Kirkland Lake, Iroquois Falls, and spots like that.”
“The Wheels of Hope program is completely volunteer driven,” continued McLaughlin, “so the funds go to reimburse the volunteers for mileage and wear and tear on the vehicles. We bring people from some very tiny communities so this money will go toward that program and the costs associated with it.”
During the presentation, Maria and Julia talked about some of the challenges they faced along the way and how even though they were lucky enough not to have run into any bears or moose along the way, “The hardest part was the long days,” said Maria, “running 7am until 8pm made for very long days of running.”
Both sisters are still feeling the effects of the run, having both sustained knee injuries during the run but were determined to finishing anyway, drawing their motivation from family and friends.
“We had fantastic support with us. Without them, there was no way we were going to get there,” said Maria, “Thank you to everyone who supported us; our family, our friends, the community and everyone who came out to our events and fund raisers, to the people that saw us on the highway and helped us out along the way, we are so grateful and extremely thankful.”
As they were making their way to Sudbury, there were a number of passers-by who stopped to make a donation right there, on the side of the road.
“There was a family with a little girl,” recalled Julia, “They had met us along the way and the little girl asked her parents if she could have her five dollar allowance right then so she could donate it to us. Of course, the parents agreed.”
In addition to the travelers on the highway that weekend, “You’ve got to think about how many people were on their way to treatment or coming home from treatment that day,” added Louise McInnis, Maria and Julia’s mother.
Even though Maria and Julia McInnis did the run for “Our mom and our brother and everyone who has that family member who needs the support”, with more the three hundred kilometers of running and months of training behind them, it’s now time to heal and recover.
Although Maria made some light hearted comments about possibly climbing a mountain, as yet, there are no plans for their next fund raising adventure but “I’m sure something will inspire me again,” said Maria, “I don’t like to be doing nothing.”
(Julia McInnis (left) and Maria McInnis (right) are joined by their mother, Louise and brother, Patrick as they present their Wheels to Heels for Hope donation to Dave McLaughlin of the Canadian Cancer Society. Note: The donation amount was recalculated after the cheque was presented. The actual total for the donation was $23,743.99 DAVE KRAMER/TIMMINS TODAY)
