By Nigel Maxwell

Woman going the distance to help the children

Jul 26, 2011 | 6:08 PM

If you are out and about in Prince Albert this week, you may notice a woman riding a strange looking bike.

Tana Silverland is cycling across Canada for a good cause. She is raising support for a group called SOS Children's Villages. They provide help and shelter for young orphans across the world.

“They build mini villages of family homes where the children get to grow up as part of a loving, stable family unit with a father or mother who lives in the home with them as their parent,” Silverland.

Silverland moved to Canada from the UK last year, where she worked with the group. In June of last year, her journey began from Whitehorse. This is her first time in Saskatchewan.

“A lot of people before I came to Saskatchewan were promising me that it was going to be really, really flat. And they weren't necessarily saying that as a good thing but as a cyclist it does have a certain appeal to it,” said Silverland.

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Silverland said she plans to stay in Prince Albert until Wednesday morning, then leave for Melfort. Her goal is to be in Saskatoon at the end of the month. Her journey will end in Newfoundland in the fall of 2012.

“The support I've had has been fanstastic. I am almost literally doing this journey with no sponsorship funding. I am quite literally dependant on the kindness of strangers in each of the communities that I come to, to take me in and provide me with a place to lay my head and some food for the road the next day,” said Silverland.

For more information on the cause people can view their web site at www.soschildrensvillages.ca.

Silverland is also keeping a blog of her journey at www.tanasilverland.wordpress.com

nmaxwell@panow.com