Iditarod Racing Team Sponsors Charity Collars for Cancer

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.

"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. Then he appeared to have 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 moved into the house so that we could enjoy every moment 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 was something that he and I could not beat."

As winter set icy roots in the forests of Alberta, amidst the holiday season, Chester grew weaker and stopped eating. So the two companions of thousands of miles had one last journey to make together. But his name will live on.

This racing season her team sprinted across the frigid wilderness to honor the brave dog teams of 1925 and celebrate the husky breeds love of running. And they wore collars symbols of a great challenge for the 21st Century - to fight cancer, a disease that afflicts millions more pets than people.

"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.

Her sponsorship of charity collars for the Animal Cancer foundation also represents the idea that we are all in this together. ACF-sponsored studies of pet cancer can shed light on human disease, and it can help pets begin to access many new human cancer therapies. For more information, visit www.pet4pets.com or www.acfoundation.org.

Photos available at: http://www.pet4pets.com/media.asp