Carter Marshall is still 10 years too young to drive but he's already well on his way down that road.
He's probably the only six-year-old in Prince George who has his own car.
The team leader of Carter's Grandpa Fathers had three tickets in the draw barrel, having raised $1,800 for the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay For Life, and one of those tickets was drawn Sunday morning at the conclusion of the 24-hour event.
He had his pick of three cars and for Carter the choice was easy. It had to be the blue one.
"I can't believe I won a car – I'm going to take it to the fair and my mom's going to drive me and papa is taking my mom's car," said Carter, while his family members dismantled the tent they had set up alongside the track at Masich Place Stadium.
Thousands of people crowded into the stadium throughout the day and night to show their support for the 25th annual event to stomp out cancer.
Donations were still coming in when it was announced the relay had raised at least $535,000, which will fund Canada’s most promising cancer research programs and support services for people with cancer and their families.
"Last year we announced $505,000 (at the end of the relay) and we ended up with $556,000 and this year we announced $535,000, so it's looking pretty good," said Aimee Cassie, co-ordinator of the Prince George Relay For Life.
"Last year we were No. 1 in Canada for the third year in a row, so we're going for number four. It's hard to find someone who hasn't been touched by cancer and the relay is such a positive environment to encourage cancer fighters and cancer survivors and it also gives to remember those who are no longer with us.
"I think what makes Prince George special is we're the only 24-hour relay in Canada, no other event does overnight like we do and we're really proud of it. We're so lucky to have a warm community that embraces the relay like it does."
Linda Picton-Bryce was the top individual fundraiser, collecting more than $11,000.
The weather was unseasonably cool, damp and breezy but it didn't stop throngs of people from showing up. Among the relay participants were 33 individuals who were there to walk all 24 hours. The 24-hour walkers were allowed one five-minute break every hour and just three 20-minute breaks in the 24 hours. One of the marathon walkers was Ashley Clarke, an 18-year-old D.P. Todd secondary school student, who headed up the team Ashley's Angels, a group of 15 friends and family members decked out in bright pink hoodies.
Clarke was just seven when she was visiting her grandmother at Jubilee Lodge and saw a young cancer patient who had lost her hair due to chemotherapy treatments. That's when Clarke's selfless spirit came to the forefront. She learned she could donate her hair to make a wig for a cancer fighter and made it happen at a Cops for Cancer fundraising event. She had just three weeks to collect donations in the foyer at Heritage elementary school but raised more than $500. That kickstarted her first Relay For Life campaign the following year and Ashley's Angels took flight under their former name, Memories March. This year, Ashley's Angels collected $7,100, for a 10-year total of $53,408.
"I cry when I look at that total, I'm so proud of her," said Tammy Clarke, Ashley's mom. "That's passionate for a kid to be doing this for that long. If her prom was this weekend she wasn't going to it, she wouldn't miss this for the world."
By 11 p.m. Saturday, 13 hours into the relay, Ashley had taken 65,675 steps, with 11 hours still to go.
"When I was eight I said I wanted to walk the whole thing, so it's my 10th-year anniversary and I've got to live up to that," said Clarke, who plans to study criminology and become an RCMP officer.
Clarke was the top fundraiser for the Prince George Relay for Life in 2010 and as her prize won a trip anywhere WestJet flies in Canada. So she chose to take her dad Shawn, a Blue Jays fan, to a baseball game in Toronto. She's been the top junior fundraiser several times and one of those prizes was a helicopter ride over Prince George. For that one she chose to take along a young mother and her daughter, a cancer survivor, for what was a memorable flight.
"The mom of the cancer patient came over and started crying," said Clarke. "She said 'I've heard about you and I just wanted to thank you for what you do. People like you are keeping my daughter alive.' I was only nine or 10 and it just hit my like, holy.
"The money does help. It helps the families that are going through it. Nobody can afford moving to Vancouver but now we have a place (Ronald McDonald House BC) where they can stay."
Pam Saulters knows all too well about having to travel to BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver. Her seven-year-old daughter Audrey is a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed three years ago with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and went through 28 radiation treatments and 10 months of chemotherapy and she's now in remission.
"We stayed at Ronald McDonald House for basically all of Audrey's treatment," said Pam.
She was at the track late Saturday night with Audrey and six-year-old Olivia Frost, who formed the relay team, Mighty Tiny Fighters. Olivia will have to continue with chemotherapy until July 2018 but her prognosis is good with a remission rate that is 90-95 per cent. The two families met through Nathan Frost, Olivia's father, who teaches at Heather Park, where Audrey attends Grade 2 classes.
"Pam reached out to us when we got Olivia's diagnosis and we met for the first time at Ronald McDonald House," said Amanda Frost, Olivia's mom. "Even though it was a different diagnosis for our daughters, being a cancer mom in general you have so many questions and so much learning to do and the doctors can only answer the technical side of things. Pam was a complete stranger to me but she gave me a lot of support from her experiences and her knowledge as a mom.
"This was our first year at the relay and we learned a lot and we plan to keep going, hoping all this will help by leaps and bounds to stop childhood cancer."
For Pam as well, this was her first experience at the relay and she walked with her husband Ryan for about nine hours.
"I thought it was pretty awesome, I think we had a huge community of people who came around to make it successful," she said. "I'm tired and really sore now. It was a long night. the kids had a lot of fun."
Mighty Tiny Fighters raised more than $12,000. Nathan was a 24-hour walker at the weekend relay and by the time he was finished his FitBit registered 111,000 steps and more than 80 kilometres.
"He'll need new shoes after this," said Amanda.
