Family's Quest for a Cure
Friend's cancer battle inspires motorcycle trek

by MELISSA CHURLY
Calgary Herald
Jan 19 2007

The Noble family plans to take their love of adventure and their passion for motorcycles to the next level this spring when they attempt to break a Guinness world record.

Sean Noble and his three sons, Ryan, Rob and Justin are planning to ride their motorcycles about 27,000 kilometres from Argentina to Alaska in less than 35 days.

"It all started over a pitcher of beer," said Sean.

"We were sitting around at Tony Roma's last February and we got to talking about celebrating my two youngest sons' graduations. We were always going on challenging adventures together and we initially decided we wanted to hike in Africa, but it soon escalated to cross-country motorcycling."

The Nobles were inspired by a previous Guinness record set in 2003 by Kevin and Julia Sanders.

The pair made the trip from Deadhorse, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, in 35 days.

But Sean is confident his family is going to break that record with three days to spare.

"We think we can beat it by quite a bit," he said.

But it's not just about breaking a record for this family -- they also want to raise money for cancer research along the way.

The Nobles plan to raise $1 for every kilometre they each travel for a total of about $108,000. One hundred per cent of the donations will go to the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta.

The family was inspired to donate money because of a friend's battle with cancer.

"Justin, my youngest son, had a friend who had cancer when he was younger, so we decided we could easily raise money," said Sean.

Sean and his sons plan to leave Alberta on May 1 and begin their journey from Argentina on May 6.

"As we get down to the deadline, it's getting a little real and a little scary," said Ryan, the eldest son. "I'm excited. We are going to be talking about this experience for the rest of our lives."

Ryan said he is looking forward to seeing the sun set at the equator and being able to see both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the same time.

The Nobles are encouraging other enthusiast to ride along on the journey with them.

Those wishing to volunteer can find out more at noblequest.org.