NWT’s Kira Young completes 1,600-km charity bike ride, raising $80K-plus

Yellowknifer Kira Young has finished a 10-day, 1,600-km bike ride from the territorial capital to Edmonton highlighting rheumatic diseases and the challenges of travel for healthcare.

Young said the fundraising total had hit $80,000 earlier this week, well beyond the initial $50,000 target. The beneficiary is the charity Cassie and Friends, a society that supports children with juvenile arthritis and other rheumatic diseases.

Over three years as a teenager, Young faced multiple emergency flights south, medical emergencies and weeks in intensive care before being diagnosed with a rare autoinflammatory disease.

The ride south began alongside participants in the annual YK2HR bike ride from Yellowknife to Hay River.

After that, travelling through rural northern Alberta, the trip featured chances to talk about the challenges of rheumatic diseases and medical travel with families along the route, then a celebration at the finish line – Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.

“I spent a lot of time physically and mentally preparing for the bike ride part of the project, but I just didn’t anticipate what an amazing community response we would have,” Young told Cabin Radio.

“The most special moments were getting to meet with these kids who, similarly to me, grew up in more remote areas, facing really similar challenges to what youth in the North face – having to travel great lengths to access healthcare.

“Pretty much every conversation I had in these communities, people would have either a personal story or a family story, a neighbour’s story about having to travel hours to access healthcare, and that was just so unexpected and incredible, and also really energizing.”

Below, read a transcript of our interview with Young after the ride ended.

This interview was recorded on June 18, 2026. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Alice Twa: Tell us a little about what you just completed.

Kira Young: I grew up in Yellowknife and now I go to McMaster University, I’m doing my undergrad in arts and science right now. I just finished biking 1,600 km from Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.

I did that both to raise awareness about the challenges of medical travel in rural, remote, and northern Canada, and also to fundraise for a really amazing organization called Cassie and Friends that supports families who are affected by a specific type of disease called rheumatic diseases, and that’s the category of condition I live with, that led me to have to travel between Yellowknife and Edmonton lots when I was younger.

How long did the ride take you?

We did it over 10 days. We were averaging 160 km a day, but the distribution wasn’t exact, so some days it was about 200 km, some days it was little over 100.

I saw you started your ride on the same weekend as the YK2HR bike ride.

The first few days with YK2HR were so much fun. The day we left the whole group, I was actually really sad because I was having such a great time. From a logistical standpoint, it’s also easier riding in the group. It’s easier to ride behind a group of people, to take turns leading and breaking the wind, so it was sad.

At the same time, the subsequent seven days with just my mom and a couple of friends were a lot of fun – and gave a lot of time for reflection about the ride and why we were doing it.

When you were biking, were you hearing from people?

The first few days of the ride were pretty remote in the Northwest Territories, so we weren’t passing through any communities, but once we got into Alberta, every night we were arriving in a rural community, and most days we would meet community members.

Some days we actually got to meet with kids who were affected or living with rheumatic diseases, so that was pretty incredible. We’d ride into town and there would be a kid and their parents, maybe their siblings, and we’d get to share stories about our experiences with rheumatic diseases and having to travel for healthcare.

Meeting all of those people, how was that experience for you?

I spent a lot of time physically and mentally preparing for the bike ride part of the project, but I just didn’t anticipate what an amazing community response we would have.

The most special moments were getting to meet with these kids who, similarly to me, grew up in more remote areas, facing really similar challenges to what youth in the North face – having to travel great lengths to access healthcare. Many times, they had never met another kid or family affected by a condition like theirs.

Pretty much every conversation I had in these communities, people would have either a personal story or a family story, a neighbour’s story about having to travel hours to access healthcare, and that was just so unexpected and incredible, and also really energizing.

How did it feel to finish?

At the finish line, there were a bunch of families and kids, a bunch of the staff from Cassie and Friends, the whole rheumatology team from the Stollery Children’s Hospital, and my family as well.

I didn’t know all these people were going to be at the finish, so it was really special. It was very busy, though. I got off my bike and spent the next two hours just talking to people and hearing people’s stories.

It wasn’t really until a couple days after I finished that it hit me that, after all of these months of preparation, dreaming of doing this bike ride for so many years, it had finally come together. I’m still processing how incredible the whole thing was.

You reached your donation goal.

The original fundraising goal was $50,000. The last time I looked, we were at $80,000.

Months ago, when Cassie and Friends set the fundraising goal of $50,000, I was super nervous. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, where is this money going to come from?’ The day that we hit $50,000 partway through the ride was so special, and now that number keeps going up.

It’s incredible on a personal level but also on an advocacy level. It’s amazing to see how people believe in this cause and believe in this problem, and also believe in our capacity to effect change.

What are your future plans now you’ve accomplished this bike ride?

Medical travel is an issue that’s really close to my heart, because of my own personal experience traveling to Stollery, my family’s experience, but also just observing how challenging it is for so many people in the Northwest Territories.

In the short term, I am going to continue to be involved in this campaign, thinking about how we’re going to use these funds to effect positive change in the North.

Long term, I’m hoping to shape my career around this vision of more accessible healthcare in the North.