‘I dedicated this bike to the staff at the hospital’: Cancer survivor rides across Canada to inspire positivity and kindness

SAANICH, B.C. — “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move,” Michael McLachlan recalls of suddenly losing complete control of his lower body and falling to the ground. “The pain was unbearable.”

After being rushed to the hospital, the emergency doctor gave Michael two choices—endure immediate surgery, which might leave him paralyzed, or “go home and get your affairs in order because you won’t be with us within two weeks.”

And hour later, Michael was having a large rapidly growing tumour removed from his spine.

“The first question I asked (the doctor when the surgery was over) was, ‘Will I be able to ride my motorcycle?’” Michael remembers with a laugh. “He looked at me like I was from outer space!”

That’s because the doctor knew Michael would be spending the next six month recovering in hospital and in a wheelchair. Michael had to learn how to walk again, and how to manage a long list of neurological deficiencies.

“Figuring out how you’re going to go forward, it’s complicated,” Michael says.

But then Michael realized it all came down to two choices again—live in the past or live in the present.

“You can’t dwell on what used to be because it’s gone,” Michael says. “You can only build in what you have today and that’s a beautiful thing”

So now, when he begins swaying his arms to his side because he’s losing his balance (which he regularly does) or falls on the floor (which he occasionally does), instead of humiliation, Mike choses to respond with humour.

“I call them my dance moves,” Michael says while recounting a recent fall in Costco. “When I got up, I said, ‘Ladies! You should see me on the dance floor!’”

You should also see Michael on his motorcycle.

“I dedicated this bike to the staff at the hospital,” Michael says, pointing to the side of his Harley that features a hand-painted message to his health-care team saying: “Positivity. Love. Family. Determination.”

He had it done after working heard to teach his body how to ride again.

Now, Michael is celebrating 10 years of cancer recovery, by travelling across 10 provinces on his motorcycle, in the hopes of raising $10,000 in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

“I want to make the best of what we have here and celebrate life,” Michael says.

After meeting countless people on his trip from Newfoundland to British Columbia, the Saskatchewan native says he’s learned we have so much to celebrate in Canada.

“The power we have as a country is the diversity of its people,” Michael says. “(But) we all have the same dreams and goals for our children, and we can obtain those if we’re kind to each other.”