Becca Told Me to Ride marks its fourth year

It’s been just over six years since 18-year-old Rebecca, lovingly known as Becca, Schofield passed away from brain cancer, but the legacy that she left behind is still as strong as ever.

On Saturday morning, over 50 motorcyclists came together in honour of the Riverview, N.B., teen for the fourth ever Becca Told Me to Ride with the Canadian Army Veterans Dunkirk Motorcycle Unit.

“I’m always reminded of something she said once to me,” said Becca’s mom, Anne Schofield who was in attendance on Saturday.

“She was really sad one day and you didn’t see her sad very often and she was upset and she said she was scared and I thought she was going to say she was scared of dying, and I thought ‘okay, how as a mother do I support her? How do I support her through this,’ but […] she said ‘I’m scared I haven’t lived long enough. I have no legacy. I will be forgotten’ and this proves that she was wrong.”

The ride started at Rossano’s Restaurant with a pancake breakfast, followed by a three-hour group ride and ending with a charity BBQ.

All of the proceeds raised will go back to the Rebecca Schofield Fund, Becca’s Smile Money, to help support those of all ages who are battling cancer.

“It’s to help with the small expenses that people don’t necessarily think about like groceries,” said Schofield.

“We have patients that had to choose between medication and groceries or didn’t have a way to get to treatments, so gas cards, taxi fares, all those little things, they add up and from us going through it, we know how it adds up and it adds up quickly,” she added.

Andy Arseneau, the co-chair of the Becca Told Me to Ride, says he thinks they’ve raised around $20,000 through the ride and BBQ’s that they hosted last year when the ride got cancelled due to weather.

“Becca’s important. Our community is important. That’s what this is all about,” he said.

All-in-all, he says the day is all about celebrating Becca and raising money.

He points out that everyone has been touched by cancer in some form, including himself.

“I’m going to dedicate this ride to my niece, seven-and-a-half years old that passed away with brain cancer,” he said.

“I do it every year. I dedicate my ride to Naomi.”

As for a monetary goal this year, Schofield says that Becca’s moto was every drop in the bucket counts.

“We take what we can get, but if we can get another $6,000-7,000 to put into the Smile Fund this year, I know that Anne would be ecstatic and so would we,” said Co-chair, Bruce MacLeod.

“It’ll help put a smile on their face. It might be, you know, an ice cream cone when they’re feeling down,” he said.

Becca was just 15-years-old when a brain tumour was first found in 2015 followed by two new inoperable tumours in December of 2016 when she was given three-to-12 months to live.

According to her obituary, her #BeccaToldMeTo movement “was her attempt to leave the world a better place, to make her short time her count,” and now six years later, her mom says she’s still doing exactly that.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see the whole scope of what she did and what she inspired. She wanted to change the world one act of kindness at a time and I think she has,” said Schofield.

She adds that Becca didn’t just inspire people to be kind to others, but also to be kinder to themselves and she is still inspiring people today.

“This will go on for just as long as Andy and I can make it happen,” said MacLeod.

Adding, “she touched so many people and so many with #BeccaToldMeTo and to this day there’s people that will pull up to Tim Hortons or Starbucks and pay for the people behind them and what not.”

As her legacy continues to leave an impact after her passing, Becca’s mom said she also left the family with one of the biggest gifts of all, something that was highlighted at Saturday’s event us dozens of strangers came together to honour a teen that most of them never got the chance to meet in person.

“I say that she left us with a gift of a community that supports us in our grief,” said Schofield.

“We’re not the only [people] who’s lost a child. We’re not the only family that’s lost a child to cancer, but what she did on her journey is ensure that we had people there to support us and lift us up in our grief.”

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