Rad Ride repeat planned on Aug. 27

For many people, a bike ride is a way to get some cardio in after work or to get from one point to another. For Steve Rademaker, it was a lifestyle — even through his cancer treatments until he eventually died from the disease.

Even while fighting pancreatic cancer, Rademaker would ride between 20 and 40 miles on his bike with friends after work, his biking partner and friend Kip Smith said.

“Our last big bike ride, we went to Logan Pass on Going-to-the-Sun Road,” Smith said. “He would never admit he was hurting or running out of energy. I think that’s part of how he stayed balanced.”

Rademaker died in December 2014.

The following summer, his biking crew and dozens of others rode their bikes to raise money for people affected by cancer and to honor the man who had gone through the disease while holding onto his passion for life.

On Aug. 27, the Rad Ride will take place again in memory of Rademaker, who was the laboratory director at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Registration for the family-oriented fun ride costs $25 and the money will go toward Cancer Support Community Kalispell.

Bicyclists will head out from Fun Beverage in south Kalispell at 9 a.m. and ride along the paved Great Northern Historical Trail. Participants can plan a route that works best for them, from nine miles to 46 miles, stretching all the way to Kila.

After participants finish the ride, music and food will be waiting for them at Fun Beverage.

Smith is the executive director for Health Information Exchange of Montana at Kalispell Regional and an organizer for the event that honors his longtime friend.

He said in the medical world, people are used to watching cancer impact families — losing one of their own made the disease an even sharper reality.

“Our core group, we all kind of went through it with Steve — his battles with cancer and ultimately his passing,” Smith said. “We felt the need to honor him. His outlook on life was so positive even with the challenges of cancer up into his death. He called Kalispell his healing place — we wanted to help others find that, too.”

Cancer Support Community at 37 W. Washington St. formed in 2015 to expand support for people impacted by cancer.

The program connects cancer patients, survivors, their families and caregivers to a community-based program of Kalispell Regional Healthcare. The community offers a full range of support services for youth and adults — from teaching someone healthy eating while going through chemotherapy to helping a spouse process that a partner is sick and how to respond.

Susie Rademaker said her husband had worked in hospital labs for 35 years when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had been in and surrounded by the medical field long enough to understand what was happening to his body.

What he missed was being surrounded by people who understood what it meant to live with cancer, she said.

“We felt he got top-notch medical care,” she said. “But as his wife, what we went through, we felt the emotional support was the one piece of the puzzle that was missing. He would talk about how he wished he could spend time with people who had what he was going through.”

She said while she and her husband had created a close community, people didn’t know what to say when they found out her husband had cancer — he was in his early 50s when diagnosed, was a Coeur d’Alene Ironman finisher in 2011, was healthy and happy.

So, when the couple announced to friends he was sick, people were often at a loss for words.

“Sometimes, you just want to talk about it,” Susie Rademaker said. “As his wife, I would have benefited from the community support home, it would have reduced my feelings of isolation and loss of control. But I’m relieved it’s here now for Kalispell, and that Steve’s memory can help support the community’s mission.”

For more information or to register for the Rad Ride, go to https://runsignup.com/Race/MT/Kalispell/RadRide.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.