Communing with Joel: Mother takes on Kids Cancer Care Ride of Courage in her son’s honour

Dale Zukowski doesn’t consider herself 'a rider.' When she hops on her bicycle for the Kids Cancer Care Ride of Courage, it’s for the child she lost to cancer. (Courtesy Dale Zukowski)

Dale Zukowski doesn’t consider herself “a rider.”

When she hops on her bicycle for the Kids Cancer Care Ride of Courage, it’s for the child she lost to cancer.

And for kids like him and their families.

“I participate (in the ride) because it honours Joel,” Zukowski said.

“And it’s fun. ... I feel good, I feel free and I feel Joel—I feel him right there beside me.”

July 10 to 12, cyclists will take to the Alberta foothills, testing their endurance for the cause on either a three-day, two-day or one-day journey.

Dollars raised send kids affected by cancer to Kids Cancer Care’s Camp Kindle in Water Valley, Alta.

Diagnosis at 10

Joel was diagnosed as having a brain tumour called a medulloblastoma in March 2009, just three days after his 10th birthday.

It was the size of a kiwi, Zukowski said.

“Leading up to this, he’d been experiencing migraines and dizzy spells,” his mom said.

“At a point, he had double vision and was covering up one eye so he could see single vision watching TV.”

Zukowski said she and her family were introduced to Kids Cancer Care while Joel was in the hospital.

Volunteers arrived with pizza and pop one day.

Over nine months, volunteers kept showing up and playing board games and video games with Joel and keeping him company whenever his parents couldn’t.

“There was a lot of support that we didn’t know about and were really grateful to have,” Zukowski said.

Joel had surgery to remove the tumour from his brain and had to relearn how to walk and talk and look after himself in general after.

He underwent 31 radiation treatments and four rounds of chemotherapy.

It was hard, but Zukowski said her son recovered.

“He regained all his faculties to about 80, maybe 90 per cent by about 2011,” she said.

“He played hockey, baseball, he went back to school, he had his motor skills back and his cognitive brain function was restored.

“He was our Joel and we had him back.”

Cancer came back

It was May 2014 when a routine MRI showed dark spots on Joel’s brain.

His cancer was back.

He underwent another treatment protocol—15 more radiation treatments and four more rounds of chemo.

It didn’t work.

“He just started getting weaker and weaker,” Zukowski said.

Joel became a spokesperson for Kids Cancer Care—a role Zukowski said her son “immediately said yes” to when the organization approached him.

“This was really healing for him,” Zukowski said.

“Being able to articulate his experience was very cathartic for him.”

Joel shared his story at golf tournaments, events and different fundraisers “until he started to get really weak.”

He started to lose feeling from his waist down, and shortly after he’d started Grade 11, he pulled out of school.

Zukowski said Joel was still able to golf and continued to enjoy that.

He golfed with his family and with his youth pastor, Stephen Carleton.

“That was really great for us because we didn’t know what else to do,” Zukowski said.

“When they tell you, ‘There’s nothing more we can do,’ which is basically what happened, those are the last words you want to hear from the medical team.”

Joel died in October 2015. He was 16.

For all the kids

Several years later, another mom whose son had died due to cancer challenged Zukowski to take part in the Ride of Courage.

It was known as the Tour for Kids then.

They trained together, excited to support Camp Kindle.

“It was Joel’s highlight to go to Camp Kindle because he could just be a kid again,” Zukowski said.

Each of the ride’s three days has a short ride and a long ride.

Zukowski does the short ride on the Sunday.

“It’s bad enough adults get cancer. Kids certainly shouldn’t,” she said.

“The funds can’t help my son, but that’s OK—they can help all the other kids.”

Information on how to fundraise for or donate to the 2026 Ride of Courage is available at kidscancercare.ab.ca.

The tour of the foothills includes accommodations, meals, a jersey and more, Kids Cancer Care said.