A story about Mikael Backlund in Swedish about how he's raising money for Barncancerfonden (Literally "Child Cancer Fund") this summer.
Barncancerfonden is an organization that raises money in order to provide funds for cancer research and treatment for children in Sweden. It provides about 90% of all the funds for child cancer research in Sweden (according to their Wiki-entry at least).
This summer they're arranging something called "Ride for Hope", a bicycle-event over nine days and 1250km. Part of the route goes through Västerås, where Mikael Backlund grew up and spends part of his summer. He's going to join in on the bicycle race when it goes through town and set up his own fundraiser online at
their website.
From the article (I'll translate it for you!):
"After having worked with charity during his NHL-seasons in Calgary Mikael Backlund wanted to do something similar back home in Sweden. He started to raise funds on behalf of Barncancerfonden and has raised close to 140 000 SEK in just a few days."
"I didn't dare to dream on raising this much. It makes one happy on the inside, Backlund says to Hockeysverige.se"
"Backlund has recently experienced the dark sides of cancer himself. He recently lost the close friend Victory Engström, professional floorball player in Västerås, to cancer. Engström passed away last week merely 24 years old and his struggle against cancer inspired Backlund to work even harder in order to support charity and research related to cancer."
The article also goes on to talk a little bit about how he's had to raise the goal of his fundraising several times because he kept meeting his goal. Also mentions that he's done charity work in Calgary as well.
(140k SEK is about 21-22k Canadian Dollars)