In 2012 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. The doctors gave me a slim chance of survival. I thought to myself: “Oh well, that’s it for me.” but my partner at the time insisted that I go through the treatments. She wasn’t ready to give me up yet. So off to the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton I went. For the first week I got a ride to the hospital every day with a volunteer driver. It soon became apparent that the drive from Port Colborne to Hamilton, about an hour each way, was taking too much of a toll on me. The hospital had a lodge attached to the building where patients from out of town could stay while getting treatments. I chose this option which gave me a lot of spare time. My daily radiation treatments only took about 15 minutes.
Boredom quickly set in. Internet access wasn’t available in the hospital at that time. To fill my time I went for walks around the hospital. It wasn’t too long before I had seen everything there was to see in the neighbourhood. I was going to have to venture farther afield.
It’s been my experience that most towns have thrift stores and those stores have cheap bikes. They are cheap because they usually need work and thrift shop employees don’t have the time or the expertise to fix them. I had that in abundance So I bought a $20 bike from the St. Vincent de Paul Society and walked it back to the hospital. It wasn’t rideable yet. It needed brakes, a shifter and 2 flat tires repaired.
A bit about the topography of Hamilton. The Niagara Escarpment runs right through the middle of town. It’s a 190 foot vertical rise and in most places it’s exactly that. A 190 foot cliff. Juravinski Hospital is at the top of the cliff and St. Vincent de Paul is at the bottom and a couple of blocks over. Close to the hospital there is a staircase called The Wentworth Steps. This is the AI overview of The Wentworth Steps. “The Wentworth Stairs in Hamilton, Ontario, are a massive outdoor staircase featuring 498 steps that climb the Niagara Escarpment. ” IT goes on to mention what a marvel it is and what a gruelling climb it is. It doesn’t mention that there is a bicycle gutter so you can wheel your bike up the 500 stairs and you don’t have to carry it. Yay me!
I get the bike back to the hospital after spending all day walking one block, down the steps, 2 blocks to the thrift shop and then back again. A full 8 hours. The nurses at the lodge let me keep it in the vestibule while I worked on it. After a week I had it in rideable condition so I took it everywhere.
My dietician couldn’t understand why I was losing so much weight. “We have you on a diet that should bulk up a bodybuilder, what are you doing?” I said: “well, I ride my bike a bit”
Her: “How much?”
Me: “Not much, maybe 15 or 20 km a day”
Her: “You’re not even supposed to be able to walk a block after the chemo treatments you’ve been getting.”
Me: “I haven’t. I ride my bike everywhere.”
After 10 weeks of treatments the doctors said: “We’ve done all that we can do, you’ll have to come back in a month and we’ll see if we got it.” So every month I travelled from Prince Edward County to Hamilton to see the doctor for 15 minutes. I was convalescing at my dear friend Juanita’s house.
After 6 months I stopped in to visit with the nurses at the lodge. They had been so helpful and caring while I stayed there and I wanted to thank them. The first thing they told me was that they were so glad that I left my bike behind when I left. They said so many patients enjoyed it. Some went for rides and some who were too weak to ride spent time tinkering with it. The nurses said it was the best mental therapy for those people going through a terrifying ordeal like cancer treatments.
Sadly, the lodge closed in 2014 and out of town patients now have to stay in hotels.
Me? I’m not dead yet.
