Mission RCMP officer and paramedic stroll through downtown with Cops for Cancer

re-posted from the Mission City Record newspaper, by Dillon White

Cst. Paul Gill and paramedic/paid-on-call firefighter Trevor Martin have raised over $20,000 for kids with cancer.

The Cops for Cancer Tour de Valley team strolled through Mission on Thursday (Sept. 18) on day four of their journey cycling across the Fraser Valley to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. 

Mission RCMP Cst. Paul Gill and local paramedic/paid-on-call firefighter Trevor Martin have raised over $20,000 so far. The funds raised also help to send kids with cancer to Camp Goodtimes. 

Martin’s brother has been with Cops for Cancer for decades and it inspired him to participate this year. 

“For them to go to Camp Good Times for a week and be a child again, instead of treatments and missing friends and missing school and so forth …  it really means a lot to me.  I'll do whatever I can to help them out,” Martin said. 

Gill echoed Martin, and said one child with cancer is one too many.  He was also motivated by fellow Mission RCMP officer Alex Poirier, who was the first officer from the detachment to participate in the fundraiser in over six years last fall. 

Mission Downtown Business Association hosted a gathering for the Cops for Cancer team as they cycled through downtown on Thursday. 

“We love having your support in the community ... we just wanted to show up for you the way you showed up for us,”  DBA Executive Director Karley Holley said.

For both Martin and Gill, preparing for the race required a lot of training. 

“The training has paid off, because this team has come together and gelled and pushed each other to do things that I thought could not be achievable by someone my age.  I just turned 40 years o and I had to train and get myself into a cardio position that I could do this. And you know what? The last four days have been so amazing because of that training,” Gill said. 

“Every time that hill is too steep, I remember that child who has that cancer treatment where they may be poked in the spine with a needle. And [you think]  ‘I can do this. I can do this for the kids.’  And that's what motivates every single one of us.”

Gill also praised the support of the Mission community throughout the process. 

After peddling through the hilly Mission area, the Cops for Cancer participants stopped at the Mission RCMP detachment as well.