CHEK Upside: UVic Vikes gearing up for Brain Cancer fundraiser

When former University of Victoria Vikes soccer captain Mackenzie Rigg was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, his teammates and friends banded together to create a fundraiser in his honour.

“We settled on the idea of a run and we decided that getting the men and women’s soccer teams to run 270 kilometres collectively to represent the 27 Canadians diagnosed with brain tumors every single day,” says Mackenzie’s former teammate Logan Fisher.

The first annual Vikes Kick Cancer far exceeded everyone’s expectations, raising over $80,000 for the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada.

“We ended up crushing all of our goals,” says Fisher.

“So we were able to create a grant in Mackenzie’s name that went towards the specific research towards his condition.”

“It was just surreal to be a part of,” says Rigg.

“Every time you checked how much money we had brought together it was higher than the last time.”

On Sunday, Oct 24., Vikes Kick Cancer is back and this time will be an in-person event.

“We’re going to get all the Vikes varsity teams involved this year,” says Fisher.

“We’re going to have every team come in, run a lap of the route and then we’ll all be contributing towards that 270 kilometres.”

The fundraiser has been yet another indication of how supportive the Vikes community is.

“I think pretty much every other varsity team raised money or did something for it,” says Rigg.

“So it was pretty neat to see and just kind of watch it all come together.”

“It just goes to show that there’s a lot of love out there for Mackenzie and we’re all here to help him through,” says Fisher.

To donate to Vikes Kick Cancer visit the event page. You can also compete virtually by walking, running or cycling 5 kilometres and posting a photo to Instagram using the hashtag #vikeskickcancer.

csorenson@cheknews.ca

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