Cyclepaths-1

Aileen, Sok and Lindsay, are all members of our laboratory department. Every day they support a team that processes hundreds of samples to support the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Outside of work, these women lead pretty active lives. Aileen is a member of a competitive women’s dragon boat racing team and has been paddling for the past eight years. Lindsay has been training for her first triathlon and is a regular in the gym and Sok cycles pretty much everywhere, including a 14km daily commute. So when Sok asked her colleagues to join her for Cycle for St. Joe’s last year, it didn’t take much to persuade them.

“We thought Cycle for St. Joe’s would be a great way to challenge ourselves physically and give back to the place where we work,” said Sok.

Despite the ride being their first attempt at a long distance cycling event, the team set their sights on the 80km course. Using Sok as her inspiration, Lindsay started cycling on a daily basis with a 20km commute to build up her endurance.

“We trained a few weekends, but we mostly relied on the fact that we were in good shape and led healthy lifestyles,” said Aileen.

They had a strong showing on their first attempt with Sok riding the whole 80km and Aileen and Lindsay completing 56km of the course. However, as a team with a competitive spirit, they were a bit disappointed with their performance. They have returned this year inspired to have the full team make it to the finish line.

“We are going to redeem ourselves,” said Lindsay with a laugh. “Last year, we didn’t have the right bikes and didn’t have enough time to practice, so we’re going to train harder and hopefully it will pay off.”

The team is calling themselves the CyclePaths —a nod to their roles on the pathology team. They have added seven members to the team and are currently training and fundraising. If they can raise $5,000, they will be able to designate the funds to support an area in the Health Centre. As lab staff, they know funding could help secure new technology to make the processing of tests easier and faster.

“We’re all very committed to patient care and would like to help in any way we can,” said Aileen.

Help support the CyclePaths by visiting their webpage.