'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.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.