MS Derailleurs, a bike team with seven Powell River members, participated in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada BC and Yukon Division annual fundraising bike ride earlier this month.
The MS Bike Cowichan Valley Experience is part of the largest fundraising cycling series in North America.It is also a very personal ride for MS Derailleurs team captain Heather Armstrong, who was diagnosed with MS at age 47 and whose mother also had the disease.
“We rode in memory of my mother, Sandy, who died with MS this past September,” said Armstrong.
Leading up to the ride the group had four local fundraisers in which they had overwhelming support from many businesses and individuals in the community, helping them raise over $15,000.
Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, a disease of the central nervous system. Approximately one in every 385 Canadians has MS, with women three times more likely to get the disease than men.
This year was Armstrong’s 12th annual ride with the group and eighth year as an MS Society ambassador.
