The 2019 Prairie Women on Snowmobiles (PWOS) hit the snow on Feb. 2 in Meadow Lake. Through the following six days they visited communities in northern and southern Saskatchewan, meeting breast cancer survivors and raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency.
Brittany Fox of Lampman was one out of the 10 riders this year.
“We had a really good turnout at all our venues. We were able to stop at 25 communities spreading awareness and raising funds for breast cancer research and equipment to be purchased for breast cancer,” Fox said.
Besides riders, the PWOS team included a pit crew of four men, who made sure sleds were running and helped riders to get unstuck if they happened to. Three executives – the president, the treasurer and the secretary – were also travelling along with the co-riders.
Fox joined the Prairie Women initiative for the first time in her life this year just before she turned 30. She noted that it was on her bucket list for a long time, and finally, this plan came to life. The experience turned out to be fabulous and life-changing.
"Just being a small part in that big organization and having so many people involved was huge," she said.
Fox has been snowmobiling since being a kid. When she was 22 she bought her first sled and was riding a lot ever since. Yet, watching her grandfather fighting prostate cancer motivated her to make a move and to utilize her hobby for a good cause.
This tour was full of challenges for the Prairie Women and their snowmobiles. Due to weather conditions, riders could only go for three days out of six and made 610 kilometers instead of the traditional 1,400.
“Once we came on the south part of our mission, unfortunately, we ran out of snow. Once we got to about Kindersley down to Maple Creek over to Swift Current, there wasn’t enough snow to ride on our sleds. And one day our sleds didn’t start,” Fox said.
Thank to the semi-truck and the van, PWOS were able to fulfill their mission and make it through the entire route, which ended up in Prince Albert on Feb. 8.
The mission allowed Prairie Women to meet some amazing people and was filled with many touching and powerful moments. Fox reflected on one of them.
“There is a lady who is fighting breast cancer right now. She’s been fighting her battle for quite some time. Her husband emailed PWOS the night before we were heading into Rosthern,” Fox said.
The man was wondering if PWOS could give his wife a call to brighten her day, but the group managed to do something better.
“We were able to have our executive stop at her house. They were able to put a pin on her for breast cancer,” Fox said. “We have what’s called a ‘comfort quilt’ that people have donated over the years. We loan these comfort quilts out so that people fighting their battle can have something that someone else has used to fight their battle as well (and they loaned one to this woman).”
“She was bedridden. And they were able to get her up to the window, and the Prairie Women semi went by, and it gave her a big honk, and it wasn’t very long later 10 Prairie Women co-riders rode by on our sleds and we were all waving.”
While passing by this breast cancer survivor’s house, every Prairie Woman likely had tears underneath a helmet, it was so strong, Fox admitted.
The mission raised over $83,000, with over $23,000 going to the Canadian Cancer Society and the rest going to the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency to help those battling breast cancer.
Fox said she would love to join the Prairie Women on Snowmobile once again if she will get accepted. And in the meantime, she plans to use this experience to raise awareness about the importance of regular check-ups.
“The breast cancer doesn’t have a cure right now, the biggest thing is the early detection. Make sure that you are up on screening and doing monthly examinations and checking yourselves and your spouses and family members to ensure that they are doing their monthly exams as well,” Fox said.
Fox hopes in the future PWOS will come through the Lampman area, so she could take part and help to host the event to bring more awareness and raise more funds in this region.
