Viking enthusiasts and runners participated in the annual Viking Challenge, raising $10K for the Save Your Skin Foundation and bringing the five-year total to $70K.
During this year’s Gimli Ice festival, for the fifth consecutive year, a dedicated team of runners joined Chris Isfeld, originally from Gimli and now living in Abbotsford, BC and Gimli’s Shawn Bjornsson in a bone-chilling run on the frozen waters of Lake Winnipeg. Typically, the Viking Challenge covers a 30km route across Canada’s sixth-largest lake, from Grand Beach to Gimli, but due to the lake’s current conditions, a safer course was established for the event.
This year, the Snowtrackers assisted with the grooming of a 5km trail from the Viking statue to Willow Island. One return equalled 10km, which is what Isfeld was able to run. Bjornsson ran 30km while the participating 14 runners ran anywhere from 10 to 30km.
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Chris Isfeld, left, and Shawn Bjornsson took part in the fifth annual Viking Challenge in support of the Save Your Skin Foundation
What began as a humorous exchange between Isfeld and Bjornsson was sparked by a photo Isfeld saw on Facebook of Bjornsson completing a frosty run. As Isfeld had recently taken up running again, he playfully suggested a race across the lake. Isfeld elaborated that he needed a significant goal to keep him motivated and driven.
When Isfeld began to experience chronic back pain in 2017, he never thought too much of it. He began to go for regular chiropractic treatments; however, after six months of constant back pain, Isfeld ended up in an emergency room with a sharp pain on the right side of his abdomen.
“At first I thought it was gallstones,” said Isfeld. “It was a complete surprise when the ultrasound results showed multiple tumours in my liver and large masses on both my adrenal glands. This triggered the need for a biopsy to determine if the tumours were cancerous, and if so, what type of cancer it was.”
On Christmas Eve in 2017, Isfeld underwent a biopsy on one of his liver tumours. This came with the devastating diagnosis of stage 4 melanoma. The following month, Isfeld went to the emergency room due to excruciating back pain. As he reached triage, he suddenly collapsed and woke up later to find nurses attending to him, administering an IV and monitoring his vitals. It was then that he discovered he had lost partial feeling in his lower body.
Another CT Scan on Isfeld confirmed that the tumours had begun to compress the nerves in the hips and pelvis, causing paralysis. The only course of action was to start steroids and emergency radiation treatment to shrink the tumours. Once this was completed, the Oncologist began a ‘Hail Mary’ treatment that had just been approved for use on patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma in BC.
After being connected with the Save Your Skin Foundation during his initial diagnosis, Isfeld expresses gratitude for the extensive care provided by the organization. He has personally experienced the impact of their immunotherapy treatment on melanoma patients, significantly increasing survival rates from 5 percent to over 50 percent.
This realization prompted him to incorporate fundraising for the foundation into A Viking’s Challenge, which held its first run in 2019. Due to the pandemic, virtual events were held in 2021 and 2022, but in both 2023 and this year, physical events were organized in various locations across Canada. To commemorate the successful run and raise more funds, a sold-out event was held at the Ship and Plough Tavern on Saturday evening.
Despite facing cancer, Isfeld remains grateful for the support and donations received from all over Canada.
Isfeld returned to BC last Monday and was scheduled for scans the following day. He is hopeful they show that he is stable at this point.
