Maple Syrup, Poutine… and Cancer Research? Let’s Connect the Dots!

Yesterday, we were gearing up (yes! Pun intended!!) to meet Darrell Fox and his National Ride of Hope Team this morning. These eight cyclists are tackling a massive 7,000 km ride from Vancouver to St. John’s! They’re raising funds and celebrating Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, aiming for a million dollars. Amidst all this excitement, my kids threw me a curveball: “Why is cancer research so expensive?”

If it’s hard for adults to wrap their heads around the costs, imagine how mind-blowing it is for kids who think a five-dollar ice cream is highway robbery! It’s a question I get regularly from children (and even their teachers) when I speak to students in Calgary schools leading up to the annual Terry Fox School Runs.

So, I was up late pondering this, especially with the whole situation of the US scaling back funding for health and cancer research. Kids might not know about that, but us grown-ups sure do! The best way I could think to explain it to kids is through the lens of delicious Canadian treats!

Imagine trying to find the perfect maple syrup recipe. You’d spend ages pouring different kinds of syrup, tasting, tweaking, and testing again, all to make sure it’s just right—sweet but not too sickly, with the perfect consistency. That’s kind of what cancer research is like. It takes a long time, a lot of experiments, and patience, but every step gets us closer to that sweet spot.

Now, compare that to making perfect poutine. You might think it’s simple—fries, cheese curds, and gravy—but if you want it to be really amazing, you have to get all the parts just right. The fries must be cooked to the exact crispness, the cheese curds need to melt perfectly, and the gravy must have the right flavour and temperature. Making sure all the pieces fit perfectly takes effort and some trial and error, and that’s why even something as delicious as poutine isn’t cheap.

In cancer research, scientists are aiming for the ultimate culinary masterpiece: a cure, or as I like to call it, a “Super-Poutine!” It’s not just about finding one magic ingredient, but about testing many different ideas and medicines on tiny creatures like fruit flies and mice first. Those tests help scientists see what works—kind of like trying different gravy recipes before serving to friends.

After that, they do careful checks on humans in trial phases—kind of like asking friends to taste-test new poutine to see if they like it and if it’s safe. Each step takes time, money, and a lot of careful science, because nobody wants to give someone a treatment that might make them feel worse. Even though it feels like scientists have been working on this forever, it’s because creating a cure is really complicated—like perfecting that poutine or syrup recipe. But every experiment, every trial, gets us closer to the day when everyone can enjoy a “cure” meal without worries. It’s a story of patience, precision, and a dash of culinary creativity! I plan on testing these analogies out on my kids, and on the school kids I will see at the 45th Terry Fox School Runs this year.

That’s why, as a family, we care so much about raising funds for cancer research. It’s the reason we woke up at the crack of dawn (4:31 AM, to be exact!) so my eight- and eleven-year-old kids, my boyfriend, and I could join Darrell Fox and his peloton of cyclists. Their goal is nothing short of accelerating cancer research across Canada!

So, my kids and I cycled with them for the first kilometre or so as they pedalled off, leaving Calgary in their dust, heading for Medicine Hat. We chipped in with a donation, too—because their ride is about way more than just bikes. It’s about carrying forward Terry’s hope and his incredible fight, inching closer to the day when a cure isn’t just a dream, but a delicious reality, just like the perfect maple syrup and poutine. That’s why we do what we do. These rides, these ideas, and these hopes are what inspire us to pitch in and play our part in the fight against cancer.

Check out the photos below!

If you found my kid-friendly explanation as to why cancer research is so expensive, feel free to send me a motivating gift, such as a coffee! I really needed one–or several, if I am honest–to help me write this blog after waking up at exactly 4:31 AM.