By Lisa Schick

Women Ride for cancer research

Jan 22, 2011 | 1:48 PM

It’s the middle of winter and most people stay indoors, but a group of women are strapping on their snowsuits and getting ready to go out.

Prairie Women on Snowmobiles is gearing up for its annual 1,800 kilometre trek across Saskatchewan.

Seventeen women, 10 riders and seven crew members, will hop on their snowmobiles Jan. 28 in Meadow Lake and head out for the eight day journey ending in Hudson Bay Feb. 4.

Tracey Persicke from Prince Albert was selected to be one of the core riders this year.

“I’m excited, I can’t wait to go. There’s tons of events planned and I think it’s just going to be great,” Perskicke said.

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She decided to get involved because it marries a good cause with one of her favourite hobbies – snowmobiling.

The event was started in 2000 by a breast cancer survivor and a friend to raise money for breast cancer research.

Last year the journey raised $202,892.46 for the Canadian Cancer Society and since its inception the program has raised more than $1.4 million.

Persicke has had a lot of support from both the community – Pine Services has sponsored her with a snowmobile to ride – and from her family and friends.

“They’ve been great, some of them think I’m a little crazy but they’ve actually been great. They know it’s something I’ve thought about doing over the years and they know how much I like snowmobiling. And this is such a great cause to do it for,” she said

Out snowmobiling for eight days, the women could run into some issues.

“Weather could be a big one,” said PWOS vice-president Carol McKnight about obstacles on the ride.

“And in some of the areas we hear the creeks are not frozen and so that might be an obstacle that we’ll have to look at.”

They have had problems in the past with not enough snow on the ground for the trek and they had to trailer the snowmobiles to get past it, but McKnight doesn’t think that will be a problem this year.

“We’re happy with lots of snow this year and the conditions look to be favourable, so that’s gonna mean a good ride for the ladies,” she said.

There are two fundraisers scheduled before the event begins and fundraisers at each stop as well, for more information about the ride’s schedule click here.

news@panow.com