Iditarod
Racing Team to Sport Charity Collars For Cancer
Karen
Ramstead, a six-time competitor in the Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Race in Alaska, is joining in the fight to help find
cures for pet cancer.
“All the dogs on my Iditarod team this year will
be sporting bright orange Pet4Pets™ charity collars,”
said Ramstead, an Alberta dog musher and Siberian Husky
breeder. The collars are sold in pet stores, vet clinics
and at www.pet4pets.com to support pet cancer research.
Each collar sold raises $2 for the Animal Cancer Foundation.
The
legendary Iditarod follows a 1,151-mile trail through deep
snow, two mountain ranges, along the lonely Yukon River,
and finally up the coast of the Bering Sea. The race celebrates
the dramatic 1925 delivery by dog sled of lifesaving medicine
for a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska. When Ramstead’s
team sets off from Anchorage this March, they will be joining
the race to cure cancer in pets and people.
“Like many dog owners, we have lost a number of dogs
to cancer. As I speak, Chester, one of my 10-year-old retired
leaders, is living out his last days. It breaks my heart
to watch as this once amazing athlete is beaten by cancer,”
she said. Ramstead spotted the charity collars at
the vet clinic. In agony at Chester’s diagnosis, she
felt that sponsoring the collars was a way to honor her
canine companion of thousands of miles of aching cold and
exhausted jubilation.
Chester arrived in her life at a grim time in the winter
of 1996/97. She had lost her father to cancer. Her husband,
Mark, was out of work. The last thing they needed was another
dog. But Chester stayed, and it was a turning point in their
lives.
Soon Mark got a new job. They moved from Calgary to Perryvale,
near Athabasca in Northern Alberta. And Karen, a Toronto
transplant, got serious about the Iditarod, called The Last
Great Race on Earth. Just to finish is a triumph of will.
She
and Chester first tried it in 2000 but did not finish. The
next year, they did. She was the first Canadian woman to
complete the race. And Chester was a leader in the first
team of registered Canadian Kennel Club Huskies to cross
the finish line, she said.
In 2004, her team, led by Chester and her superstar leader,
Grover, set the third-fastest time for a purebred team.
As celebrities, she and Chester toured schools to teach
youngsters about mushing. Chester loved kids, and they loved
him right back. “With his non-stop wagging tail
and friendly Siberian grin, he made friends wherever we
went,” she recalled. A handsome dog, Chester also
won a Canadian Championship and is one of only seven Champion
Siberian Huskies that have finished the Iditarod.
In January 2005, Chester retired from racing after a shoulder
injury. He spent the winter of 2006 in New Hampshire and
came home to retire.
Recently
he was having trouble swallowing food. A lump appeared on
his head. An X-ray, barium swallow and biopsy confirmed
that Chester had advanced cancer and less than a month to
live. “Our once proud, strong sled dog has moved
into the house so that we can enjoy every moment we can
with him,” she said. “Chester and I have
traveled 20,000 miles together in harness over the years.
We have conquered the Alaska Mountain Range, brutal storms,
ice, overflow and more – but this is something that
he and I can't beat.”
So this March her team will sprint across the frigid wilderness
to honor the brave dog teams of 1925. And they will wear
symbols of a great challenge for the 21st Century –
to fight cancer, a disease that afflicts millions more pets
than people. Sponsoring the charity collars for the
Animal Cancer foundation helps raise awareness that scientists
studying pet cancer can also shed light on human disease
and that many pets with cancer may benefit from new human
cancer therapies.
“If telling Chester's story can help make it so someday
another dog owner doesn't have to watch their dog go through
this, I'm all for it,” she said.
For more information about Pet4Pets charity collars, visit
www.pet4pets.com.
Scientific
American, December, 2007 - Studies of pet dogs with
cancer can offer unique help in the fight against human
malignancies while also improving care for man's best friend.
