You might have had trouble picking him out among the more than 1,500 riders in this weekend's Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, but Richard Webb pf Airdrie was right there among them.  

Webb was a first time rider in the event which is now in it's ninth year.  During those years, the ride has been amazingly successful in raising funds for the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary and the 16 other cancer centres across the province.  

This year was no different as the riders raised $6.7 million, bringing the total raised in nine years to over $66 million for the Alberta Cancer Foundation.

Webb is himself a cancer survivour, having been diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2015.  He says when you hear those words, "you have cancer," it sets your mind into overdrive.

"When you get told at first you kind of get a little excited but then it kind of builds after a while.  It's quite a 'what if' scenario because you're not sure what's happening inside your body because I saw the surgeon that was going to remove it and it was eight weeks later I had my kidney removed but, once you know it's there, you're always wondering, is it growing, is it doing something different?  So it was quite stressful during that time waiting to have the surgery."

Now, more than two years later, the prognosis for Webb looks good.  "15 months after surgery I had another CT scan and everything was clear at that time.  The kidney function in my one remaining kidney is good as expected with only one kidney.  At the end of this year I have one more CT scan and if everything's clear at that time I should be on the same level as everyone else in the population as far as risk of cancer."  

Webb joined a team for the Ride to Coquer Cancer this year.  "I joined Tom Baker Cancer Conquerors and all the money that our team raises goes directly to the Tom Baker Institute for Clinical Research so that's very important to me because, without doing some of the trials, a lot of the cures won't be found,  Our team raised around $380,000 and I was really lucky this year, I never thought I would raise this much, but I'm around $10,000 myself."

Webb calls riding in the event "uplifting."  "All the people that have survived cancer have a flag on their bike so everyone knows that you've survived cancer.  The support and the cheering is amazing, The volunteers that are out at all the rest stations.  It's amazing the number of people who are out to support you and help you along your way.  It's quite uplifting and it makes you feel really good that there's this many people trying to help you out and help everyone else with cancer."

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