'The job is to get through it': Tour de Rock rider persevering through cancer diagnosis

It's unusual for a Stage 3 cancer diagnosis to come as a relief, but that's exactly what happened for one rider in this year's Tour de Rock.

Lindsay Nicholson was initially told that her breast cancer was terminal – Stage 4 – and that she may have only two years left to live.

But after doctors determined that what they initially thought was cancer in her liver actually wasn't, they downgraded her to Stage 3. Now, the Saanich police officer and mother of two has hopes of getting cured – and pedalling 1,200 kilometres down the island while doing it.

Nicholson told CTV News she thinks of her diagnosis as method acting – embodying the lived experience of those she's fundraising for in the Tour de Rock.

“How better to understand the people we’re trying to help (than) by becoming one of the people who needs help?” she said.

Now, Nicholson's plan is to ride as much of the tour as she can, stepping away for weekly chemotherapy appointments and striving to raise tonnes of money on her Tour de Rock fundraising page.

“Is it tempting to lay in bed and cry about my situation and do absolutely nothing and just cover myself in cheeto dust? Absolutely," she said.

"If you’ve been given a diagnosis of cancer. It’s not your job to stay positive. It’s not your job to be a certain way. The job is to get through it as best you can.”