Rob Dyer: Light Up a Smile, not a Cigarette

Cancer is something that is all around us, but not everybody understands. It's a disease that can break apart families, that can tear apart souls and can bring out unimaginable fear. But Cancer can also bring together the most inspiring people who will do whatever it takes to try and conquer this seemingly unconquerable disease. Rob Dyer is one of those people who decided to step up and take a chance. To go beyond all expectations and create a foundation that has now reached all borders of the world and has inspired so many more to help create a change through knowledge.

At 25 years of age, this tiny, soft-spoken, and tattooed skater has already accomplished so much and touched so many lives. Creating Skate4Cancer (S4C) after his mother passed away from it in his teens, he decided to push forward and create something positive out of something so negative. Skate4Cancer is an organization that helps to promote cancer prevention through knowledge. The "mission" on the S4C website states, "Though we stand in solidarity, Skate4Cancer recognizes that presently the best tool we have is knowledge on prevention. In fact, hope shines with the understanding that 80 % of all cancers can be avoided through early detection and healthy lifestyles…Working together through accessing this community, we can combine all of our spirited passion to drastically reduce the presence of cancer. Right now, the cure is the knowledge…”

Let's Skate!

Over the past eight years, Rob Dyer and his team have constantly been promoting the S4C campaign while creating awareness that has slowly been spreading all over the world. Just recently, he returned from skateboarding all across New Zealand and half of Australia before having to return to Canada after an unfortunate hit-and-run accident leaving Dyer injured. Even after all that, he's still determined to push forward. "We skateboarded across New Zealand and we had just started to skate across Australia when I got hit by a car. [Unfortunately] I had to come home, but we’re going back there in January and starting over," Dyer said in a recent interview at the S.C.E.N.E. Music Festival, held in St. Catharines.

Ever since S4C has gotten up and running Dyer, they've basically run it from their apartments and homes, but now it's time to step it up a notch. The S4C team has recently been planning on opening a drop-in centre to help those suffering with cancer. "Basically what it’s going to be is a place where kids can go in to talk to someone while they’re going through cancer treatment and whatnot, a place for people to pick up Skate4Cancer educational pamphlets and for someone to talk about it and about the programs there," he said.

Dyer's most recent campaign was inspired by a saying he found two years ago. It really struck a chord and went on to become the title to his most recent endeavour. "I remember about two years ago I saw it on a ‘no smoking sign’ and I fell in love with it so we started doing it with T-shirts and pamphlets and things like that."

Dream.Love.Cure.

Rob Dyer's dream is to have all the world acknowledge that cancer is out there and that through knowledge it can be prevented. Cancer can be beat, it's just a matter of dreaming it can happen, loving yourself enough to care, and finding a cure through knowledge. Through Rob Dyer's connection with skateboarding and his love of music, he's been able to reach many people, but mainly teenagers and young adults, across the border with his passion for cancer prevention. Through the younger generations, he is able to spread the word about cancer and in turn they spread the word even further, thus far creating an endless chain of knowledge.

There's no other way to describe this other than to show you his commitment and love for knowledge. With only eight years in the making, Dyer has a multitude of years ahead of him, and a determination that will set him apart from any other out there. As he sets to skate across the Australian continent yet again this coming January, as well as continue to gather support from people around the world, Rob Dyer is inspiring people to become inspired.




Written by: Taryn McElheran
(Originally posted on suite101.com - July 4, 2010)


Photo courtesy of Victoria Morse