National fundraising ride to stop at McMaster Sunday morning

Dr. Stacey Marjerrison has never done anything like this before. She’s never run a marathon or been in a multi-day physical competition, but in a sense, she’s been training for the National Kids Cancer Ride her entire life.

Marjerrison draws a link between the emotional and mental demands of her role as a children’s cancer physician at McMaster and the grit needed to get through the three-week, coast-to-coast cycling event.

“Being a pediatric oncologist and going through med school and then residency for four years and then oncology training for three years – that was a grind,” she says. “There were lots of times that were tough and there were lots of times where the days led into the nights led into the days led into the nights… and you just do it because you have to do it and people need you and they depend on you.

“And so I feel like being able to be in the moment and mentally encounter all those times where things are hard and you don’t want to do them and you do them anyway – those are things that I do all the time.”

Marjerrison is part of a small group cycling from Vancouver to Halifax this month to raise money for 17 children’s cancer centres across the country. Funds support programming, research and activities such as summer camps. The ride is scheduled to stop at McMaster this Sunday, September 15, from 8-9 a.m. before continuing through eastern Ontario, Quebec and into the Maritimes.

Twenty years ago, Marjerrison worked as a counsellor at one of those camps for kids with cancer. Later, she was a camp doctor at another, and today she’s on the board of directors. She’s deeply committed to helping children with cancer and their families through her clinical work, her research and even her time away from the hospital.

While that may not sound like much of a work-life balance, Marjerrison doesn’t see it that way. For her, the fundraising ride and the months of training that preceded it are how she creates personal wellness.

“I think the thing that helps the most is actually finding joy in what you do and finding a way to feel like you’re contributing and making a difference,” she says. “And that’s where I find things like this bike ride to be super beneficial for me. Because it allows me to take a step away. When you have bad outcomes for some patients, then I can say ‘how can I make the cancer experience better for families? How can we make survivorship better for lots of kids?’”

This year, the disease crept back into Marjerrison’s personal life as well. Her father died of colon cancer. She’s dedicating the ride to her patients, their families and her father.

“I think most people encounter cancer in their lifetime,” she says. “And I think it reminds you to be with your people, to care about them, to ask the questions you want to ask, to be present and also when it’s their time, it’s okay, because it’s the only certainty.

 “At the end of the day, for me, doing this job and doing the work I do and doing this ride, I feel every day like I’m alive. Which is a pretty neat way to live.”

Follow Stacey Marjerrison and the National Kids Cancer Ride online. So far, she has raised more than $50,000. Read more in the Hamilton Spectator.