Diagnosis inspires the trip of their lifetime

I’ve always thought of myself as an athletic person. In 1986 I
headed west from Toronto to get a taste of the ski slopes of Western
Canada. It was everything I had ever imagined. The majestic peaks of
the Rockies fueled my love of adrenalin by pushing my meagre skiing
ability to the maximum. At the end of a season of following the local
boys around the mountain, I felt I could truly call myself a skier.
After several years back in Ontario finishing off my studies, I made
the permanent move to the West to enjoy the mountains in all seasons.
(Photo Lea Storry- Pauline Hunt and her family)

For over nine years I defined myself as a professional mountain bike
racer, hurtling myself down steep mountains on my bicycle. Winning the
BC Cup in 1996 was the pinnacle of my racing career. In the winter, my
time was spent teaching adults and children to downhill ski, until it
was time once again to pack up my little car and hit the road for the
next bike racing season.

As my chronological age approached the third decade, I began to
experience an emotion that I had not experienced before on my bike;
fear. It was time to end my racing career and focus on other
pursuits.

I more seriously followed my chosen profession, graphic designer, and
finally settled in the beautiful mountain city of Revelstoke. It was
and still is my version of paradise and it’s here that I met my
husband and where we have chosen to raise our two beautiful daughters.
The lush Columbia valley, surrounded by majestic peaks, provide an
everchanging display of light and colour. Recreational opportunities
abound, and I continued to spend my spare time skiing, biking,
mountain and rock climbing, and hiking.

So, in 2009, when I noticed I was not performing to my athletic ideal,
I began to wonder what was wrong. It was so subtle; tired legs from
only a half day of skiing, or staying at the springtime fitness level
for biking even though it was mid summer. Since it was a hot summer I
thought the twitching in my leg muscles must have been due to chronic
dehydration and a lack of certain minerals in my body. After
consulting my physician, the results of my blood tests pointed me to a
neurologist. After the blood test the doctor said it could be one of a
thousand things, including a virus, so I had myself convinced I was
going for another routine test and it was going to be a virus and that
would be the end of that. It didn’t happen that way at all.

Instead I was told that I had ALS. The technician in Kamloops had a
few words for me that I thought were very wise, she said, “None of
us knows when we’re going to die. And in a way — I know it sounnds
like a cliche — it’s as though you’ve been given a gift. You have
this window of time in which you can really live your life while the
rest of us are just screwing around.â€

So my husband and I took those sage words of advice. We didn’t sit
around and grieve very long, we focused on creating a new plan for our
lives. My main goal was to create lasting memories for our young
daughters, ones that they would cherish in the coming years.

So we set off on a year of travel and adventure. Word of our plans
leaked out to friends and strangers in our small city and the other
mountain towns that myself and my husband had lived in over the years.
The communities and coworkers rallied around us to make our dreams a
reality. It was the trip of a lifetime.

I was able to show my eldest daughter the Aurora Borealis, after which
she is named, in her birthplace of Yellowknife. I went helicopter-
skiing, dog sledding and visited the beaches of Mexico with extended
family. After that we set off for Asia; spending time living in China
for four months, then visiting Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia,
Cambodia and Vietnam.

Deciding that we may as well keep heading west, we criss-crossed
Europe visiting friends and family along the way.

We made it back to Canada 11 months later with big grins on our faces
and so many fabulous experiences; including having taken our then 3
and 5 year old daughters around the world. I would hope that our
travels have opened their eyes to all the possibilities around them,
the differences yet similarities we all share, and how fortunate we
are to be living in Canada.

Now that we are all back at home, life has taken on a more ‘normalâ
€™ role. Our daughters are busy with school and friends, but seem to
value spending time as a family. They do not see me as ‘ differentâ
€™. Sure, mommy doesn’t run like she used to, but I am still
otherwise the same person I was three years ago.

Having ALS has forced me to slow down, in a figurative and literal
sense. While I may not be teaching my children how to hurl themselves
down the mountain at breakneck speeds, as I once envisioned; I am able
to share with them my appreciation of life and the beauty of nature
around us. I am teaching them to meditate and do yoga; and there is
almost always time for a good book. My heart is warmed when they
notice the pink blush of a sunset or the delicate colours of a budding
flower. To me, that is reward enough.
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(The last paragraph in this advertisement speaks volumes. It is very
sad that it took ALS to open this woman's eyes to real appreciation of
life and nature, slowing her down, without the pursuit of adrenaline
pumping extreme sports. Luckily for her young children, she will not
be able to teach them how to hurtle down mountainsides at high speeds.
And her children are too young to remember this extreme adventure tour
of theirs, anyhow, but now have a better chance at appreciating life's
quiet pursuits, instead.
But I still find too much glorification of extreme sports in so many
advertisements and articles, as being the "only way to experience life
to the fullest". That is not the truth, and we know that.