The donor: Karen Simpson
The gift: Raising $25,000 and climbing
The cause: Several charities, including Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
When Karen Simpson turned 50, she decided to take on a new challenge every year to raise money for charity.
So far, Ms. Simpson, who is now 55, has climbed mountains, participated in a duathlon and taken long bike rides to support several charities. She’s raised $25,000 in total and plans to add to that amount next month when she joins the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, a 200-kilometre bike ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls, Ont. The annual event draws thousands of riders who raise millions of dollars for Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
Helping fund cancer treatment and research at Princess Margaret is particularly personal for Ms. Simpson. She’s battling two forms of skin cancer and her husband, Jeff Bauer, has fought bladder cancer. Her mother, mother-in-law and father also had cancer. “That’s just too many people,” said Ms. Simpson, a strategic sourcing partner of women in leadership at Toronto-Dominion Bank in Toronto. This will be Ms. Simpson’s second year on the two-day ride, and last year she raised $3,400.
“I don’t think that there’s anybody that doesn’t know somebody who’s had cancer or suffered with cancer,” she said. “It’s something that we do need to eradicate.”
Paul Waldie