Kingston-Quinte Ride for Dad co-chair Marion Perry’s heart was filled with hope and joy when she and her organizing committee presented a cheque for $35,000 – the proceeds from last year’s Ride for Dad event – to cancer researcher Dr. Francisco Vera-Badillo.

“It feels like we are saving someone’s life,” said Marion, who lost her dad to prostate cancer 27 years ago. “I know the money will go to good use. Our Kingston researchers are going to do a really good job using it.”

The cheque presentation ceremony for the 2023 Kingston-Quinte Ride for Dad event took place on May 13, two weeks before the 2024 edition of the Kingston-Quinte Ride for Dad.

The popular fundraising event, which features motorcyclists touring around the region, was established in 2004 and has raised over $1.6 million for the fight against prostate cancer. Over $700,000 of those funds have been granted to researchers at Kingston Health Sciences Centre to provide seed funding for innovative and new research projects that have the potential to make a difference in the fight against prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of death from cancer in men in Canada. If caught early the five-year survival rate is  93 per cent, which is why Ride for Dad organizers encourage men to be proactive and get tested. Prostate cancer can grow undetected for several years with symptoms only emerging in advanced stages, so early detection is the key to survival.

Dr. Vera-Badillo, an oncologist at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, is grateful the Kingston-Quinte Ride for Dad committee is supporting his research, which is currently looking at a specific prostate cancer biomarker. He hopes his research will one day lead to a clinical trial exploring the effect of new drugs on prostate cancer patients who show that biomarker.

“This type of research is very important because it goes from the lab into the clinic,” says Dr. Vera-Badillo.