This week's guest on Let’s Meet For A Beer is the inspiring Krystal Kitchen. Krysytal and Mark first met in 2017 when she registered to participate in the Ride To Conquer Cancer as part of Mark’s Wednesday Beer Night Cycling team. Just one day after being fitted for her team cycling kit and sending out emails to her friends and family asking them to sponsor her ride she would receive her own cancer diagnosis. We discuss her courageous journey through recovery and getting back on her bike, and her commitment to raising kind, respectful, and caring humans.

Krystal first picked up cycling in 2014 when she bought her first road bike so she could participate in the Ride To Conquer Cancer. She rode on a team with two of Mark’s brothers, but seeing the Wednesday Beer Night team’s kits she felt jealous of how great they looked and would later join Mark’s team in 2017. However, Krystal would find herself unable to participate in the ride after receiving her own cancer diagnosis. Having just been to the doctor to remove a cyst and being told there was less than a 2% chance she had cancer she knew in her heart something was wrong, and tells us her doctor had cared while giving her the news.

By the time the 2017 Ride To Conquer Cancer rolled around Krystal still hadn’t been cleared to get back on the bike, being only two weeks out of surgery. However, the Wednesday Beer Night Cycling team didn’t feel right crossing the finish line without her, so the entire team gathered at the top of the hill at Winsport and walked across the finish line together with Krystal leading them. It’s now two years since Krystal walked the finish line with the team, and we discuss her experience finally being able to cross the finish line on her bike. With another three years before she can be declared cancer-free and in remission she still visits the cancer centre every six months, and describes how the visits have become comforting and reassuring.

We also discuss Krystal’s passion for caring for others, including the plans she once had to go into nursing, and the admiration Mark has for the emotionally challenging jobs that nurses and other medical staff do every day. While Krystal didn’t end up going into nursing, she still gets to help people all the time in her job as a teacher and in her goal to raise her three children to be kind, caring, and respectful humans. She tells us that “as a measure of a parent, as long as you’re raising nice people, you’re doing a decent job."

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Wednesday Beer Night Cycling Team