Riding for resilience: duo’s Iceland bike trek raises thousands for cancer fight

Vancouver residents Christian Jones and Matt Braun are tackling a 925-km bike ride through Iceland’s rugged Westfjords to raise over $25,000 for cancer research. Joe Sadowski has the story.

For Christian Jones and Matthew Braun, biking is more than just a form of exercise. Tminus 72 hours. At 29, Christian’s wife Hannah was diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering she carried the BRCA gene, marking her as high risk for cancer. What followed was a long journey filled with multiple surgeries, endless doctor visits, and sleepless nights, all while planning their wedding at the same time. We were pretty scared at first and um yeah, it took us a second to kind of wrap our heads around it and then quite shortly after that, Hannah’s younger sister actually got diagnosed with breast cancer, too. So, her and her sister were actually going through the whole experience sort of in tandem with one another. With the support of the BC Cancer Foundation, Hannah and her sister Bethany went through chemotherapy and emerged cancerree. You’re so brave. Oh, thank you. Oh my goodness. That’s such an amazing feeling. Fueled by their triumph, Hannah and Christian joined the ride to conquer cancer, discovering a shared passion for cycling and a new way to fight back. Hannah and him wanted to do something together in the face of cancer, and that’s what brought us together, and I helped him get into it. Christian and his lifelong friend Matt launched the West Ford charity ride, aiming to raise $20,000 for cancer research. days away from the start of the ride, their determination has already surpassed that goal with over $25,000 raised for the cause. And so we saw this as just a great opportunity to uh to give back to a community that gave so much to us. This idea to go to Iceland for a while and we thought, hey, why not do something a little more special and give back. Their journey, a grueling 925 km ride through Iceland’s rugged west fjords to be conquered in just 8 days. Each day’s ride is like climbing Mount Seymour twice. All on custom bikes handcrafted by Matt himself. Right on the coastline on the West Fjords. Uh so lots of wind, lots of inclement weather, probably rain. It was snowing a couple weeks ago. Christian and Matt’s Westjord journey honors every survivor, every fighter, and every soul who keeps pedaling through the storm, hoping to prove that resilience can conquer any terrain. In Vancouver, Joseki, City News.