The story of a tandem bicycle and two stroke survivors
In 2004 my wife Cheryl and I decided to get into tandem cycling.
We found a second hand tandem for sale and travelled to Parramatta Park to meet Dale (the Cannondale tandem) and its owners Ross and Ann.
They were a great couple in their early 40s. We were a few years older.
Ross walked over with a bit of a limp and shook my hand. He had to lift his right arm with his left to shake hands.
Ross had had a major haemorrhagic stroke several years earlier in 2001, and they were selling the bike because he couldn’t get his lame leg over the crossbar.
I thought that was a shame to be the end of their tandeming adventures, but no! They were buying a tandem with a lower crossbar, and planned to take 12 months to cycle around Australia!
They set out soon after we bought Dale and we followed their blog, as they rode to raise awareness and funds for the stroke foundation.
To keep a long story a bit shorter, just over 12 months later they were finishing their 18,000km epic lap of Oz. Cheryl and I asked if we could ride with them for their last day back into Parramatta, old tandem next to new(ish) one. They enthusiastically agreed and we met in Liverpool before setting off together for Parramatta. Ross strode up to me with no limp and a firm right hand!
[ it is only with hindsight that I look back and get inspired by Ross’s determination and his amazing recovery 3.5-4.5 years after a stroke from which he was initially told he would not walk again.]
Over the years Dale has served us well, and has had several gearset upgrades. We have done two 1000km, ten-day rides from Sydney out to places like Lake Cargelligo and back. We rode in the 2009 Great Vic bike ride 600km over a spectacular nine days around south west WA, and in 2018 we took Dale to Europe and rode over 2,000km from Manchester to Munich over 10 weeks. That was an awesome holiday!
I helped start a charity Exsight Tandems that takes blind people riding on tandems and I have been riding with various blind friends since 2008 up until......
Fast forward 20 years from Ross’s stroke to 2021, I suffered a significant haemorrhagic stroke affecting the same part of my brain!
I am now nearly 2 and a half years down the recovery journey and still learning to walk again, so not back on the tandem (yet). Instead, I have a spin bike and a recumbent trike, and recently EXSIGHT was offered a tandem recumbent that Cheryl and I can ride.
It has taken me about 2 years to want to learn anything about my stroke and find out about Ross and his inspiring story. I had lost contact with Ross but I found that he has been a stroke foundation ambassador and found some info about his journey. Among other things, he talks about the Plateau Myth in stroke recovery. His own example shows why you should never make assumptions about the limits of someone’s recovery.
I am now keen to encourage other stroke survivors to be a survivor not a victim, and to find encouragement in others’ stories to press on to whatever best version of themselves they can be – and to try to enjoy the journey, treating self with compassion along the way.
Stroke sucks, but life afterwards doesn’t have to.
Ross’s story has given me hope and courage. I hope this can for you.
