Eli Element and Riley Watson are back after biking 200 kilometres from Perth to Peterborough over the weekend.
They are raising money for brain cancer research in Eli’s uncle’s name. His uncle, Shaun McIntosh, who has two young daughters, was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer in May 2017.
“It all started with us being inspired by other fundraisers,” said Watson, 12. “Eli’s uncle has inspired us to do something about it and just do the bike.”
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The soon-to-be grade 8 students at St. Anne’s Catholic Elementary School were driven up to Perth to start the trek back to Peterborough on Friday using The Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail.
“The first day, it was little harder. The bugs were a lot worse and the trails were a lot worse. But in the end, it was hard, but we were able to complete it,” said Eli, 12.
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They set a GoFundMe goal of $5,000, but by Monday afternoon, they were nearly $1,000 clear of that goal.
“We weren’t expecting to raise this much. We definitely succeeded more than we thought we would,” added Watson. “We appreciate all the people who helped us.”
“We will do this again. We love a good challenge and we love making money for good causes as well as we want to be as healthy and fit as we can.”
They will leave the GoFundMe page up for another two weeks.
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