Honouring the Life and Legacy of Randy Berg
July 9, 2025
Found in Clinical Trials, General, Innovation, Lung cancer
Randy Berg still holds the Vancouver Island Secondary Schools record in the 100 metre hurdles — clocking 13.6 seconds in 1981.
But his legacy goes far beyond high school athletics. After being diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer, his courageous participation in a BC Cancer clinical drug trial — which extended his life by two years — is helping advance research in the leading cause of cancer-related death in B.C.
Randy took great pride in furthering research in a disease that is frequently diagnosed at a late stage, often resists treatment, and affects non-smokers in 30% of cases — all of which reflected his own experience, says his wife, Debra.
“He was my hero,” she says. “He never complained, even when they needed to take tissue samples, knowing they’d be used for future research.”
Randy put his athletic prowess to altruistic work long before his own cancer diagnosis, participating in physical fundraising events such as the Capilano Volkswagen Cypress Challenge — the BC Cancer Foundation’s signature cycling event for pancreatic cancer.
On July 7 — what would have been his 60th birthday — Debra and Randy’s family presented a $8,000 cheque from funds raised from family, friends and colleagues to the BC Cancer Foundation to continue to fund BC Cancer research in his honour.
Randy was a healthy, life-long athlete, pictured here competing in track and field, and yet he was still diagnosed with lung cancer in his late-50s.
Born in Comox, and raised in Powell River, Randy attended UBC on a partial track and field scholarship and later BCIT before embarking on a successful career in the aerospace and technology fields.
“He negotiated contracts for drones and air traffic systems, which took him all over the world — Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand to name a few. His love of travel and adventures provided us some amazing experiences together. For our 25th wedding anniversary, we actually spent it in Paris.”
In 2022, six months before Randy passed away, he and Debra took their last trip, returning to Hawaii, where they’d married in 1994, to renew their wedding vows.
“We were on the beach, holding hands and looking at each other with tears in our eyes. We both knew this would be the last time.”
Debra credits Randy’s oncologist, BC Cancer’s Dr. Cheryl Ho, who gave him special permission to travel, for affording them this and many other cherished final memories.
“When Randy was first diagnosed, we were scared and lost and didn’t know what do to. Her support got us out of that hole. She would say, ‘Just go out there and enjoy life,’ and we did.”
Dr. Ho stood by Randy through his entire diagnosis, including while he was in hospice and and continued to offer compassion by reaching out to Debra after his passing in January 2023. She was the one who suggested the clinical drug trial after Randy had run out of treatment options, says Debra.
“In the early stages, it actually shrunk some of the tumours and as a result we got two more years with Randy. We’re so thankful, and hopeful that with further research one day this disease will be gone.”
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