In 2007, I biked across Canada to raise money for the Kidney Foundation of Canada and awareness about kidney disease and organ donation. I called the ride Bike Canada for Kidney.
I had been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, or PKD, a few years earlier. My father had already been through kidney failure, dialysis and a transplant, and my brother had PKD too. I was still young and healthy, but I knew what the disease could mean for our family. I wanted to do something while I had the health and energy to do it.
My friend Justin McGee helped dream up the ride and started with me in Victoria, British Columbia. We carried our own gear, camped along the way and followed the Trans-Canada Trail where possible. A knee injury forced Justin to stop early, and I continued on my own for much of the journey. I rode with other cyclists along the way, and my cousin Angela Watson joined me for the final stretch to St. John’s, Newfoundland.
There was no support crew, but there was plenty of help. People offered meals, places to sleep and encouragement when I needed it. Friends, family, volunteers and schoolchildren organized fundraisers and followed my progress from home.
By the end of the ride, I had cycled 7,550 kilometres over 100 days. With the help of many people, the campaign raised $26,000 for the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
This page brings together the photographs, newspaper clippings and videos from that summer. I wanted to keep them in one place so that anyone interested in the ride could look through them, learn what happened and see some of the people who helped along the way.
Local newspapers followed the ride from the early planning through the finish in St. John’s. Their stories helped bring attention to PKD and organ donation, and capture how the journey looked to the communities I passed through.
Most of these videos are old news clips from Bike Canada for Kidney, recorded during, or shortly after my 2007 ride across Canada.
The photos and clippings capture parts of that summer. The full story fills in what happened between them—the wrong turns, the doubts, the kindness of strangers and what it felt like to keep heading east.
