$455.79

As I look forward into 2025, I'm very grateful and humbled to serve on the steering committee for the 27th year of such committed, diverse and passionate community of people joined together for a singular purpose. Carrying a message to end HIV stigma by challenge inequity and  access barriers to basic health, social supports, agency and autonomy. When public funding diminishes, it is incumbent upon those with privilege to respond.

I'm very proud to share that in 2024 the Friends For Life Bike Rally raised $1.6 million dollars.  Of that, $1.07 million went directly to providing access to food, treatment, income, therapeutic and immigration supports for over 2,773 community members. 

Of that number, 39% are immigrants, most as refugees from Carribbean, African and South American countries where laws do not protect the basic human rights of a person with living with HIV. Of the 4,173 immigration services accessed in 2022 -2024, I'm privileged to have been able to offer my professional services on over 300 occasions to aid newcomers navigate their way towards a new life. 

These numbers are only growing.

Your contribution makes a very real difference in the lives of people who, just like those casualties from the early years of the AIDS epidemic, without the opportunities offered in Canada,  would meet the same end.

Please give generously. 

Yours in service. 

-Ian