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Aurora team races for cure at Targa Newfoundland Rally

September 10, 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Brock Weir

It’s not your average end-of-summer road trip, and indeed he says he has spent “two years total and more money than I would like to admit” to get ready for it, but it will all be worthwhile, says Aurora’s Gordon Pilling.

Mr. Pilling, along with fellow Aurora resident Jordyn Harrison, hit the road before the crack of dawn on Saturday morning, due to arrive in St. John’s, Newfoundland this week to take on a long-held dream, while making a difference in the lives of others in the process.

They are participating in the Targa Newfoundland Rally, a 2,000 km rally running from September 14 – 19, which shows off the best Newfoundland has to offer, challenging competitors from all over the world, and attracting thousands upon thousands of spectators in the process to cheer them on.

“I have been following racing for a long time and it is not just the racing aspect of this event, but also the duration of the event,” says Mr. Pilling. “It is five days straight of rallying and it is just an overall huge adventure. Annually, there are about 25,000 spectators for this event and I figured what better time to do a little fundraiser for a cause that means a lot to me.”

Mr. Pilling’s mother began her cancer journey two years ago. Through a series of successive surgeries and chemotherapy, she was able to beat the disease.

“During that whole time I was always looking for ways to help out and this seems like a great way to raise money for the cause that helped my mom get better,” he says, of his fundraising efforts for the Canadian Cancer Society.

On their way to Newfoundland, and when they are actually on the road rallying on The Rock, they aim to hand out small cards with a URL leading to their fundraising page on the Society’s website. They hope the information will pique the interest of people they encounter to log on, donate a little bit, and help them reach their ultimate goal of $5,000. Before they departed on Saturday, they were just shy of $1,000.

To help them along the way, Mr. Pilling has done extensive work on his car. After stripping the interior down to the bare metal, he had a full roll cage built, which set him back more than a few dollars. If you’re racing on a track, he explains, you can slow down without hitting anything.
“In a rally, if you go off the road, you can go into someone’s front lawn – or off a cliff!” he says with a laugh.

If they don’t achieve that ultimate goal, Mr. Pilling says they will be satisfied in raising awareness of what can be done to help find a cure. Checking one grand adventure off their to-do list doesn’t hurt, either.

“I definitely want to build awareness out there just to avoid what my family went through,” he says. “People have to understand that they have to do their annual checks to make sure everything is okay. There is really only one benefit to checking out that page and learning about the different kinds of treatment, and what you can really do to help out and volunteer, or even just a slight donation towards cancer research.
“It is pretty much our personal passion to help out a great cause.”

To support Race for a Cure, visit convio.cancer.ca/goto/raceforacure.

         

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