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Be Inspired By Michael Huisman
For
the past five years cancer has been a part of Michael
Huisman’s life. It began when his son was diagnosed with
neuroblastoma, a rare form of disease found in young children.
Sadly, Huisman’s son lost his battle at the age of 13 months.
After suffering this devastating loss, Huisman thought he was done
with this horrible disease. Unfortunately that was not the case. In
July 2008, after a long and courageous battle with leukemia, his
mother passed away from complications after undergoing a bone
marrow transplant.
“Mom fought a long, brave fight
against her leukemia,” he explains. “Thanks to the
advances made in cancer treatment she had an excellent chance of
defeating it; unfortunately more work is still needed.”
Huisman’s hope for a cancer-free future is his
bedrock motivation for taking part in Enbridge Ride to Conquer
Cancer. He rides for everyone who has ever been touched by cancer
and even those who have not: “I want this disease beaten so
that it cannot continue its assault on me or on others that I love
or anyone,” he says. “I have felt the pain caused by
cancer and that’s what inspires me to ride.”
Huisman was one of the 1,742 riders who took part in the
inaugural Ride to Conquer Cancer in Alberta, a weekend he describes
as being incredible. After being inspired by all the people that he
met on the 200km journey along the Majestic Rockies, he signed up
for 2010 on the spot.
Be Inspired by Andrew Hogg
Andrew Hogg road in 2010 because he saw the tremendous toll that cancer had taken on his girlfriend Susan Eyre. He saw the ride as not only a way for him to support those helping Susan, it was also a way to personally join the battle.
Andrew explains: “When your role is to support your loved one in the fight with cancer, there is not much you can do and you know it. I felt helpless and lost. Then I heard about the Ride. Finally, there was something I could do for Susan and for all those unknown people who shared her fight.”
Andrew registered for the Ride 2010 in March. He got a couple of his business partners on board and they trained together. For Andrew, it was the time to build up his resilience and strength, and to reflect on his life.
Road biking was a new experience for the whole group. But it won them over completely. Never putting his goal aside, Andrew had cycled for 1600 km prior to the 2010 Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer.
Crossing the finish line gave Andrew a huge sense of accomplishment. Susan was there, waiting for him and cheering. It was clear to him that Ride was not going to be one time success but a key part of his life. He registered immediately for the 2011 Ride.
Susan passed away a month later. “I’ll never forget the tremendous treatment provided by Tom Baker Centre in Calgary and Cross Centre in Edmonton. My goal this year is to raise at least $25,000 to support their work in the fight with cancer. This is something I can do.”
Train with Tammy Cann
Tammy Cann is
not your typical cyclist. A car accident ten years ago left Tammy
with severe injuries to her right foot the doctors' diagnosis was
that within 5 year she would be confined to a wheelchair and unable
to do any activity that would put weight on her foot. Having
suffered bone, nerve and tissue damage, Tammy found it difficult to
walk to the end of the block without extreme pain and swelling.
However, when a family friend passed away from liver
cancer, just four months after beating a very aggressive form of
breast cancer, Tammy decided that she needed to do something:
“I was very angry. I wanted to do something to
stop this from happening,” Tammy explains. “I had lost
too many people to cancer.”
Having been
physically inactive for nearly a decade, Tammy’s first step
after signing up for the Ride was to join a gym. Paired with a
trainer, they came up with a regime which left Tammy shattered
after their first session.
“After the first
session I couldn’t get off the couch, it destroyed me,”
she said. Tammy didn’t let this deter her from taking part;
she started her training by riding two kilometres and then going
home and taking a nap. Slowly, over time she increased the
kilometres with each ride until May 2009 when she completed a 53
kilometre training ride and then went home and did household
chores.
“I didn’t think I could do it,
but with the Ride Guides’ encouragement I made it the whole
way.”
Tammy continued to train and increase
her endurance by doing a set of exercises that she and her trainer
came up with and relying on Wii Fit and Wii Cardio, up until the
weekend of the Ride. Although she was riding on a bad knee and was
often advised by the medical staff to stop, Tammy pushed on:
“I had worked too hard to give up and I knew
that what I was going through was nothing compared to what others,
with cancer, had gone through.” She claims that the hills
were the hardest part but the encouragement from other Riders kept
her going, even when she wanted to give up:
“At the bottom of each hill I thought, ‘I can’t
do this’, but I just kept on going, through all 72
hills.”
Training for the Ride helped Tammy
lose a total of 27lbs and go from a size 2XL to large, “at my
first orientation in November they gave me a 2XL t-shirt. When I
went again in March, they gave me a Large. Not only did I lose
weight, but my strength greatly increased and I had a control over
my foot which I hadn’t had in years.”
Now Tammy routinely does 10km rides and relies on her bike for
everything that doesn’t have a time constraint or need the
volume of space that only a car can provide:
“Unless it’s grocery shopping, where I really need my
car, I try to use my bike to get around,” she said. “My
two-year-old granddaughter loves it. She sits behind me and cheers
me along saying ‘faster grandma, faster’.”
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