Page 29 - Suncor 360 - September 2014 - English

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SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
SEPTEMBER 2014
360

Courage and heart personiied
EVERYONE HAS A STORY.
WHAT’S YOURS?

Email us at 360@suncor.com
and tell us why you or one of
your colleagues should be
Ivan Holderness
proiled in Six Degrees
of Separation.
Electrician, mine equipment maintenance, Fort McMurray

With Suncor since 2003

Whether working out ive days a week to face one of the most His hard work paid off this July, when he covered 226 kilometres
gruelling competitions known to man, or battling stage three (140 miles) swimming, biking and running, in under 17 hours. But

melanoma, Ivan knows what it’s like to walk the road few would keeping his body going strong isn’t all this busy father of three
dare tread.
does these days. He’s using his story to create long-term change

for children in Africa.
Getting word in 2012 that a lump under his arm was the dreaded

disease, Ivan faced many moments of doubt and despair. Then The greatest challenge for me.was realizing that life is precious
one day, during chemotherapy treatments, he decided to trust and has to be lived with purpose. Thinking about the race helped

God with whatever happened but live life to the fullest in the me look past the sickness, to what could be.
meantime. For him, that meant completing the Subaru Ironman
My new goal in life.is to make sure I can keep children from
Triathlon in Whistler, B.C.
starving. I teamed up with my brother-in-law and cousin for the
race to collect pledges for a charity called Hope International.

We’ve raised $25,000 so far toward our $100,000 goal to help
some families in the Democratic Republic of Congo purify their

own water and learn good farming techniques.

Solving problems.gets me excited. That’s why my job at Suncor is
the right it for me. I’m called in to troubleshoot when the electric

shovels or haul trucks at our mines break down.

the opportunities are endless. I started 11 years
Suncor because.
ago as a machine operator, and Suncor put me through tech
school to be an electrician for the work I do now.

The most important things for me.are my faith, my wife and kids,

and the company. The support from my team at work has
been outstanding.

One thing I’ve learned.is to
be content. I’ve been

cancer-free for two years

and won’t be considered
cured until I reach the

ive-year mark. They say
there’s a 50 per cent chance

of recurrence, but I am
focused on what I can do

today, to make a difference
for myself, and others.

Ivan Holderness was one
of three Suncor workers
who completed the Subaru
Ironman Triathlon in July.

Inset, George Colbert in
Finance, left, and Michael Arns in Upstream also competed
in the gruelling race.