Manitoba MD running down prostate cancer

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/08/2011 (5405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Forty pounds, 4,000 kilometres and almost four months ago, Dr. Riley Senft hit the ground running and is now raising awareness about prostate cancer in Manitoba.

On May 6, Senft packed his bags for a cross-Canada run to promote prostate cancer awareness. Now, with only 2,000 kilometres left on the journey, the 32-year-old University of Manitoba anesthesiology resident is nearing Winnipeg a little battered, awfully blistered, but still raring to finish the run, which he’s dubbed Step Into Action.

The message is a personal passion. “Prostate cancer thrust itself into my life and reared its ugly head,” Senft said. “My dad got prostate cancer and my grandfather died of prostate cancer, and two close family friends got it. I started thinking about what I could do. I thought maybe (running across Canada) was the best way to get the message out.”

Senft reached Winnipeg Thursday evening and slept in his own bed for the first time since setting out on the highway at Cape Spear, N.L. But though the run has sometimes taken a toll — running through a 40 C heat wave in southern Ontario pushed his body to the limit, he said — it’s also given him the adventure of a lifetime.

In Ottawa, he unwittingly ran right into the hullabaloo surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s visit. In Peterborough, Ont., he ran right past an outdoor Barenaked Ladies concert. He even got engaged in the run, popping the question to his longtime girlfriend in Kenora last weekend.

But the most important thing, Senft said, is that the run of his life could help save others. Step Into Action is privately sponsored, and all donations go straight to the Vancouver Prostate Centre, a leading prostate cancer treatment and research facility. So far, he’s raised about $300,000 of his lofty $1-million goal.

What’s more, he’s raised awareness. “We get a lot of people saying, ‘I didn’t know I was in the age bracket. I guess I’ll go.’ “

For the record, the age bracket to start getting annual exams for prostate cancer begins at 40 for most men and can be younger if there is a family history of the disease. On the run’s website, stepintoaction.ca, Senft has posted more statistics on the disease, which will afflict one in six Canadian men.

On Sunday, Senft will host a nine-kilometre celebrity run in support of research and education about prostate cancer. The public run kicks off at 9:30 a.m. at The Forks and winds up at Assiniboine Park just before noon.

On Monday, Senft will be back on the road, aiming to run about 70 kilometres a day until he finishes in Vancouver near Thanksgiving.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca