On day 75 of his 6,680-km cross-Canada cycling trip, Gibsons-raised Chris Dempster, 26, is about done with his bike.
"People ask me what I'm going to do when I get home and I say, 'I'm gonna take my bike to the end of a pier and heave it off,'" he said with a laugh.
But behind the epic journey of eight to 11-hour days on the road, covering up to 200 km a day, is another story: Dempster's quest, along with teammate Tim Bowen-Robert, to raise money for sick kids and their families, through the Ronald McDonald House charity.
A few years ago, at a friend's suggestion, Dempster started volunteering with Ronald McDonald House B.C. The House offers free accommodation to families with sick children who have to travel into Vancouver for medical treatment. Many of the children have cancer, and their families are there for extended periods.
As a volunteer, Dempster does everything from basic administrative work to admitting and discharging families to making meals, playing video games or just hanging out with kids and their families. Often, he said, he'll spend time with a sick child's sibling, who may be feeling forgotten with parental attention focused primarily on the sick sibling.
"It's just been a really humbling, rewarding experience overall for me," Dempster said. "You go in there and you see what these families are going through and it just really opens your eyes to what's important in life."
Last year, Bowen-Robert dreamed up the cycling trip as a means to raise money for the kids and their families.
"It was kind of a no-brainer," Dempster said. "I said, 'Let's go for it.'"
They put together a fundraising proposal, mapped out a course on Google Maps, and set a fundraising target: $100,000.
Three weeks before leaving in May, Dempster, who hadn't ridden a bike since elementary school, bought a bike and started going for daily bike rides - mostly, he said, "to get my butt used to the seat."
On the flight out to Halifax, he had some butterflies.
"I thought, 'Oooh, this could be the most embarrassing thing I've ever decided to do, and I'll have to fly home a couple of days later,'" he recalled.
But the trip has gone remarkably smoothly, and he and Bowen-Robert have managed to keep to their schedule without any serious mishaps or delays.
So far, they've raised about $30,000, and expect to see that figure grow when they complete their ride on Sunday, Aug. 9.
And while the money will go straight to Ronald McDonald House B.C. to be used as its administrators see fit, Dempster said he hopes it may help kickstart a new campaign to build a second facility in Vancouver to deal with high demand.
"We definitely do see a need as volunteers. I can recall times when I've gotten a call and it's this mother or father at the hospital, inquiring about a place to stay and I've had to turn them away, and that's just a terrible feeling," Dempster said.
But beyond the fundraising goal, Dempster said he hopes the expedition will raise the profile of what Ronald McDonald House does and who it can serve.
"I think it's important for people on the Sunshine Coast to know what it is because the Ronald McDonald House is definitely a place that somebody from the Coast might need to use one day," he said.
