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Val Thérèse teen bikes for cancer research

Tanner Levesque has become a bit of celebrity in the valley thanks to his yearly bike rides to raise money for cancer research. For his fifth year of fundraising, Tanner, 14, and will make a couple of big changes to his ride.
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For the fifth time, 14-year-old Tanner Levesque will bike from Val Thérèse to Sudbury to raise funds for lung cancer research. Tanner begin his bike ride the morning of Saturday, Aug. 29. Photo by Jonathan Migneault.

Tanner Levesque has become a bit of celebrity in the valley thanks to his yearly bike rides to raise money for cancer research.


For his fifth year of fundraising, Tanner, 14, and will make a couple of big changes to his ride.

Instead of cycling the 16 kilometres from his home in Val Thérèse to the taxation centre on Notre Dame Avenue, as he has done the past four years, Tanner will add to his commute and bike around 25 kilometres to Bell Park.

He said he hopes he can jump in Ramsey Lake after the ride, if blue-green algae doesn't prevent him from getting in the water.

Another first for 2015 is an online fundraising site.
Thanks to the Canadian Cancer Society, Tanner's supporters can now easily donate to his cause with their credit card or PayPal.

All funds go directly to lung cancer research.

The disease took his grandfather's life in 2011.

Tanner said he was very close to his grandfather, Howard Fairbairn, who often took him fishing.

After Fairbairn died, Tanner, who was 11 at the time, took the initiative to contact the Canadian Cancer Society without his parents' knowledge and suggested his idea for a cycling fundraiser.

“They were totally with me on the idea,” he said.

“He didn't want other people to suffer the way he saw his grandfather suffering,” his mother Leeann Levesque said.

Since then, Tanner has raised nearly $12,000 for cancer research.

His goal this year is to collect $1,500 for his cause.

Tanner will begin his fifth annual bike ride between 7:30 and 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29.
 


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Jonathan Migneault

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