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Family creates their own triathlon and cancer fundraiser

Hike, bike and play video games.

It's a new-version Okanagan triathlon fundraiser created by the Strasberg/Levitan family to celebrate Jessica Strasberg's 10th anniversary of cancer remission.

"This is a very personal fundraiser for our family," said Jessica's husband, Matt Levitan.

"It's the first time we've done it in Kelowna, but we're looking to make it an annual event and include Kelowna General Hospital as a beneficiary."

</who>Matt Levitan and Jessica Strasberg and their kids are doing their own version of an Okanagan triathlon on Sunday to raise money to commemorate their wife and mother surviving breast cancer. From left, Noah, 8, Matt, Samara, 15, Jessica and Ben, 12.

On Sunday, the family, which also includes kids Noah, 8, Ben, 12 and Samara, 15, will embark on a two-hour hike, 9:30-11:30 am, to Paul's Tomb on Knox Mountain.

Then, from 12:30-2:30 pm, Matt, a long-distance runner, will jog 21 kilometres along Abbott Street and Lakeshore Road accompanied by the family on bikes.

Finally, from 3:30-5:30 pm, Matt and the kids will play video games while Jessica, who is definitely not a gamer, will hop on her Peloton for a stationary-bike workout.

The original plan called for skiing and boarding as a family in the morning instead of the Knox Mountain hike.

But concessions had to be made with Big White Ski Resort deciding to close a week early.

"I know it's a weird little triathlon either way because there's none of the traditional swimming," said Matt.

"But it's our own unique triathlon and serves the purpose of getting the kids outdoors and us giving back, plus two hours of gaming in the name of charity."

The family set a fundraising goal of $10,000, but has already exceeded that with about $12,000 as of Wednesday morning.

</who>Matt Levitan wore this t-shirt at the End Cancer Walk in Toronto.

Before moving to Kelowna a couple of years ago, the family lived in Toronto, which is where Jessica received her treatment for cancer at Princess Margaret Hospital.

That's why most of the money raised will go to Princess Margaret.

The rest will go to the American Association for Cancer Research because the family has friends and relatives in the US and it's easier for them to donate to a national charity.

Next year, Kelowna General Hospital will be added to reflect that the family now lives in the Okanagan and Jessica has links to the hospital.

Jessica is a doctor with a family practice in Glenmore who also works at the Urgent Care Centre at Capri and the Okanagan Women's Clinic's intrauterine device section, which is cleverly nicknamed At Your Cervix BC.

That explains why her Peloton username is AtYourCervixBC.

You can utilize that same username to join her at 3:30 pm Sunday for The Greatest Showman class posted to Peloton on 18-11-16.

Or you can join Matt and the kids to play Minecraft, Fortnite and sports video games at 3:30 pm on Ben's channel at twitch.tv/arcticfoxxy.

The gaming component is a nod to Matt's 20-year marketing career with PlayStation Canada.

He's scored some digital copies of video games and an AKRacing gaming chair worth $1,000 to give away as raffle prizes to those that join to watch or play.

If you'd like to contribute go to questtoconquercancer.donordrive.com/participant/LevitanTriathlon or donate.aacr.org/participant/LevitanTriathlon.

When the family lived in Toronto, it did a Run for Life fundraiser in 2012, 2013 and 2014 that raised a total of over $100,000.



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