My Super Hero by Johanna

The Great Cycle Challenge -2021    
Team Isaac is off and training for 2021.

Isaac Jewett is my superhero for the Great Cycle Challenge Canada -2021. I rode for him last year, and together, he and I brought in $3,320 for research into children’s cancer. We are going to try and beat that total this year because 1400 children are being diagnosed with cancer every year, and 4 children die of cancer every week. They need our support. As a cancer survivor myself, (I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 8 years ago), I know the benefit of research and excellent medical care, and am so happy to be here and able to pay it forward in gratitude.

Isaac was six when he developed a rash on his arm. His father, Aaron Jewett, took him to the hospital in Fredericton, NB, where bloodwork indicated that Isaac had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and needed to be immediately transferred to the IWK in Halifax. He would remain in treatment at the IWK for the next three months. Initially he had chemo through a Porto Cath several times a week. He had a lumbar puncture every two weeks. The first 29 days of treatment put his cancer into remission. The second 29 days maintained him in remission. Now he is on a maintenance dose.

Isaac is now nine. He still goes to Halifax every three months for a lumbar puncture and chemo. Once a month, he goes to the DECH for his pentamadine. This makes him throw up. Every day, he takes oral chemo, and on Tuesdays, he also takes 10 pills of methotrexate. He will likely have to continue this regime for another 18 months.

And yet, Isaac doesn’t let any of this get him down. He is a regular kid, playing video games, going to school, driving his dirt bike. And when he got his birthday money on May 29, he took his sisters and dad to McDonald’s. He has a heart of gold.

So, let’s show him our love and support. My goal is to cycle 800 km in the month of August 2021 and raise $3000. I am training every day and am ready to accept donations.

If you would like to support Team Isaac, please go to www.greatcyclechallenge.ca, click on “donate”, go to “find a participant” and enter my name (Johanna Bertin). You will receive a tax receipt for the amount directly from the Sick Children’s Hospital. (I know that they messed up in 2016, but they have fixed the problem.

Isaac and I appreciate every single donation. You have made him feel very special, supporting him and other children with such generosity.

Thank you. And thank you as always to the courteous drivers I meet every day.

Johanna Bertin (366-5289) and Isaac Jewett

(NB All medical information is shared with the permission of Isaac and Aaron Jewett.)