On June 21st, I will ride my bicycle 400km to raise directed, (no admin fee waste) funds for Cancer research. We will ride from Kelowna at 2:30 a.m. and arrive in Delta B.C. near Vancouver at around 10 p.m.

People ask why I would do that…..sounds painful! Doesn’t your butt hurt? Yup. But nothing compared to the pain my friends with cancer have gone through.

I will get to ride alongside people that have, or have had cancer. Beside doctors that have saved lives, and who are involved in cutting-edge research to make a real difference.

No conspiracy theory garbage, just honest hard work and dedication.

I have heard stories of people donating bone marrow and saving someone’s life – two people that will never meet, but who have totally changed one another’s life. You just never know.

There are so many ways you can make a difference to a person you may never meet. In addition to donating to a cause like this, you could donate blood.

I do, and it’s pretty easy! It doesn’t take long and it’s good for you. Just call 1-888-2-DONATE. You could save the life of a baby, a grandfather, a sister, who knows?

On Sunday, our Rotary Club hosted a Father’s Day Run – with funds going to the world-wide eradication of polio effort. Such an easy win! Rotary clubs all over the world are gathering funds to work diligently to end polio. So easy to save lives!

Then we come to your own life – how about saving that one too? By choosing a healthy lifestyle of eating well, exercising and drinking water more than anything else, you can save a really important life: your own! It can then extend beyond that, in what I like to call the ripple effect, because you never know who you will inspire!

I got fit in 1998 after getting really unfit sitting too much, eating too much and doing way too little. At the time, I just wanted to feel better, get off my medications and enjoy my life again. I got fit. My medications were no longer required and I did start really enjoying life again.

I had no idea what all of that would create next. I quit my career in architecture, I opened a gym, I started racing in triathlons, etc. and the ripple effect has been so profound!

I had the pleasure this weekend of watching friends and clients who have dropped 30 to 160lbs run in the Father’s Day Run. I got emails all weekend from friends and clients that had done triathlons, body building shows, Spartan races and all sorts of other cool stuff.

All this and I am just one normal guy. Just like you, nothing special.

All I did was I got fit, and I started helping others to do the same. That is all I did, and you can do the same thing!

So many people go on and on about how rotten things are. You know what: walk away, pick something, anything and make it better. Focus on what you WANT in this life and let what you do not want drift away and become irrelevant.

You can start right now. If you want to save a life through my bike ride, check this out:http://tinyurl.com/ojrww57.

Scott McDermott is a personal trainer and owner of Best Body Fitness in Sylvan Lake.