Rolling past the odds

On June 13, 2010, North Vancouver resident David Park went on a bike ride that would change his life forever. At the bottom of Boundary DH on Mount Fromme, the 48-year-old crashed, falling nearly 10 feet and paralyzing him from the neck down.

But almost four years later and after extensive rehabilitation at VGH and GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, David (who is considered an incomplete quadriplegic) hopped back on the bike, taking on a 1,750-kilometre journey to raise money for Spinal Cord Injury B.C., which supports paralyzed individuals and their families.

“I wanted to do something and try and give back to a system that helped me out so much,” says the film technician, who can walk but has limited use of his hands and feet. “And I’m hugely grateful for that.”

Called the Ride for Spine, the journey took David from Dease Lake in Northern B.C. to a cheering crowd of friends and family at GF Strong last Friday.

“The goal was to try to walk – to stand, to get out of the bed, to walk – and then to cycle was the dream,” he says. “But to come this far is unbelievable. I had no idea it was going to turn out quite the way it did.”

With files from CTV and the North Shore News