As a pathologist, Dr. Grant Roden is confronted with cancer on a daily basis. In the lab, he examines biopsies and more often than he'd like, sends a message back to the surgeon: yes, you'll have to give the patient the terrible news.
He never meets the people but he sees the parts of them that are attacking their own bodies, and giving that a name can feel like a death sentence.
For most of the 17 years Roden has lived in Prince George, he's steered the NorthBreast Passage Dragon Boat team and for the last two years he's joined the Wheelin Warriors of the North on the annual 200-plus kilometre trek during the Ride to Conquer Cancer.
In these experiences, he gets to put a living face to cancer, and he gets to join those fighting it.
"I make these diagnoses and we really don't get any sort of positive feedback. It's just nice to see that there are people that are surviving and thriving quite well," says the 51-year-old. "It's not an immediate death sentence."
The dragon boat team has been a source of inspiration to Roden and this weekend when he bikes from Vancouver to Seattle, he'll take heart in the yellow-clad riders who represent those living with - or after - cancer.
"Part of it's just in tribute all those people, all those faceless people that I've diagnosed with cancer," says Roden of why he committed to the grueling ride, the months of training, and the fundraising commitment that saw him raise almost $7,800 of the northern team's total of more than $112,000.
Although numerous family and friends have been touched by the disease, it's his mother's face he sees when he's struggling through a final stretch or climbing an exhausting hill.
Ten years ago she died from brain cancer after a two-year fight. She was originally given six to eight months to live.
"She really put up a very valiant battle," he says. "She was a very sweet lady, very caring, very loving. She was the one parent that I could really talk to. It hit the whole family hard when she died."
Three years after that, his dad was diagnosed with lung cancer, but in the very early stages. That made the difference and today he is alive and healthy.
"To me just joining something that doesn't require a whole lot of effort does not do my family members' justice," says Roden, who was a novice biker when he started training three months out of the ride last year. "They've been through chemo, radiation, surgery and what-not. So for me a two-day bike ride and training for it is not a big a deal as someone going through cancer."
Last year, he'd never ridden farther than 50-km and never with his feet clipped in - and he's got the scars on his calf to prove it.
"The feeling you get when you cross that finish line is indescribable," says Roden, who feels much more prepared for the experience this year.
"My biggest inspiration is my mom," he adds.
More than once, he's cried while biking and thinking of her. As a reminder Roden carries a small teddy bear his mother owned before she died. Around its neck, a small pink ribbon and the word 'hope' strung to a necklace.
"My bike's name is actually hope," Roden says. "The dragon boat ladies, when they do the salute, their theme is hope. It just all fit."
Roden joins about 50 riders on the three-year-old northern team who will take part in the two-day ride on Aug. 29 and 30. In its first two years, the team has raised almost $170,000 for the BC Cancer Foundation.
"If the money I raised helps even one family to not have the word cancer in their life then that makes it all worthwhile," Roden says.
He's most looking forward to that moment, at the start line, when every single rider surges forward together, before being spread out by the hundreds of kilometres of distance over two days.
"I get goosebumps thinking about it now."
