Iditarod Racing Team Sponsors Charity Collars for Cancer

Charity Collars Help Raise Funds for Clinical Research for Cancer in Pets

Karen Ramstead, a seven-time competitor in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, is joining in the fight to help find cures for pet cancer.

The legendary Iditarod follows a 1,151-mile trail through deep snow, over 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 set off from Anchorage this March, they joined the race to cure cancer in pets and people.

"All the dogs on my Iditarod team this year were sporting bright orange Pet4Pets™ charity collars," said Ramstead, an Alberta dog musher and Siberian husky breeder. The collars support pet cancer research. Each one sold raises $2 for the Animal Cancer Foundation.

"Like many dog owners, we have lost a number of dogs to cancer. This winter, I lost Chester, one of my 10-year-old retired leaders. It broke my heart to watch as this once amazing athlete was beaten by cancer," she said.

Ramstead spotted the charity collars at the vet clinic. In agony at Chester's diagnosis, she saw the collars as 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. In 2001, however, 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.

They continued to race, and as celebrities, she and Chester toured schools to teach youngsters about mushing. Chester loved kids, and they loved him right back.