Video – Photo Gallery – 17th Annual Rice Lake Challenge – Fight For Our Boys
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Those cheers that rang out on Rice Lake Saturday were all part of the game for the 17th annual Rice Lake Challenge to raise money for the fight against Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
The sign on the Gore’s Landing Dock said Fight For Our Boys, because the disease predominantly affects boys.
It encouraged everyone to “support our journey around and across Rice Lake” in loving memory of event founder Brian Connor’s two brothers, Kevin and Terry, whom he lost to the disease in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they were just teenagers.
This might mean the 100 km. Jim Deviney and Cameron Deviney Martin bicycled around the lake, or perhaps the 13 km.. Jay Sherwin and Laurie Martin-Deviney paddled in their canoe across the lake.
Tyler’s Walk had a number of people taking part around Gores Landing.
Connor’s 13-year-old great-niece Shayla Connor was among the swimmers. Though she didn’t make it all the way across the five-km. length, the important thing is that she wanted to participate.
Her great-uncle Brian, however, did well for a 69-year-old. He was on the north side of Rice Lake at 8 a.m. with his 62-year-old friend George Bennett. In they went and, by 12:40 were closing in on the dock to the cheers and applause of onlookers. The accolades didn’t stop until both were helped up the ladder to accept towels and hugs and congratulations with gratitude and emotion.
Connor (originally from Cobourg, though he later moved to London) said it was one of the roughest swims he’d had – and surprisingly cold, given the recent heat waves. But hearing the cheers from shore over the final stretch, he said, was fantastic.
Bennett said they’d supported each other all the way across, and his friend’s determination was an example to him.
“It was inspiring to see him,” Bennett said.
Also inspiring, he added – “all the participants that swim, the people that drive the boat, the people that support us, encouraging each other. Helping each other is what it’s all about.
“I have to think that this event is going to have some benefit for these kids and their families.”
The 2025 Rice Lake Challenge brought in $20,000, bringing their total over the 17 years to $460,000.
“The more that the message gets out and the more that we are able to raise some money, and the more they are able to find these cures or treatments to make it better for these boys, I think that every minute is worth it,” Bennett declared.
Connor gives a huge thank-you to the many people of Cobourg, his friends, family members and people who have come from across Canada for this cause, along with his friends from the Yes We Can group and the fire departments from Keene and Hamilton Township.
“We’ve got to keep plugging away, trying to find a cure,” he said.
Nicola Worsford from Defeat Duchenne Canada – mother of a son with Duchenne disease – was delighted to see the support Connor and Bennett had received.
“I think this is a beautiful thing that Brian and George and the whole community have come together to continue to raise awareness about Duchenne and also raise some critical funds to help support families across Canada,” Worsford commented.
“It’s incredible how much Duchenne affects the entire family, including the siblings. We have that too. I also have a 15-year-old daughter, and my son now is 18, living with Duchenne. And I am watching how it impacts her life as well.”
Worsford said that the funds raised will support research, education and advocacy that are so critical.
Since Connor lost his two brothers long ago, she added, things have gotten a lot better.
“Thirty years ago when Jesse’s Walk first started, which is now Defeat Duchenne Canada, there were no treatments. There were no clinical trials. Even health care – our clinicians were still trying to figure out how to provide the best care for young men and boys who were living with Duchenne,” she recalled.
“Thirty years later, Defeat Duchenne Canada has now granted over $18-million towards research world-wide, which is incredible.
“We now fund top-class educational programs for families that include institutions, hospitals and expert clinicians from across the country to talk about the best health care for our young men.
“And now we are advocating for access to treatment. There are now eight treatments that have been approved outside of Canada, and now our work is to advocate for our families to get access to those treatments.
“Young men like my son Owen, who is 18 years old – he’s still walking, which is amazing,” Worsford stated.
“Our boys are living longer, living better quality of life, and we are making a lot of progress.
“There’s still lots to do, mind you, but we are making really great progress.”
